The killing school life of class 78
by Sylene Bloodrose
Summary: When Makoto is accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, she feels like the luckiest girl in the word. Not only will she be attending the most prestigious school in Japan, she will be going with her best friend, Sayaka Maizono. But once she's within Hope's Peak, Makoto finds herself trapped in a deadly killing game where the only way out is to kill a classmate.
1. False beginnings

Chapter 1: False beginnings

Laughter and giggles fill the medium sized bedroom. Three teenage girls can be found piled on top of the queen sized bed as they watched a comedy program on the small TV in Makoto's room. Makoto is the girl currently lying in the middle of the trio, her head resting on her slim arms. She is a small 17-year-old with medium length brown hair tied into twin pigtails on the sides of her head.

To Makoto's left is her blue haired BFF, Sayaka Maizono, the lead of Japan's most popular Idol group. Makoto had met Sayaka in grade school, the two have been close friends ever since. The blue haired girl didn't live far from Makoto, about a block away. So it was easy to hang out even outside of school. After being friends for so long, they saw each other as sisters as well as BFs. Sayaka's father is a single father who had to work a lot. When they were little Sayaka would stay at Makoto's house will her dad worked. They would watch the live idol shows together in the living room, Makoto hadn't had a TV in her room back then. Sayaka had loved watching the idol shows, it was actually what inspired her to be an idol. Plus Makoto's cheerful and optimistic encouragement.

And to Makoto's right is her little sister Komaru. The word 'little' being used loosely. Mainly due to the fact that even though Komaru is two years younger, she and Makoto are the same size. Komaru also has brown hair though her hair was in a bob cut.

It was currently nighttime and the three girls were already in their PJ's. Komaru turned her head from the TV, looking in the direction of the two other teens. "I still can't believe that the two of you are going to be attending Hope's Peak Academy! To think that my big sister will be going to such an amazing school." Makoto felt herself blush at her sister's enthusiastic words. Starting tomorrow Makoto and Sayaka will be attending Hope's Peak, the most prestigious school in Japan. A school that takes in the best of the best, where only people who are scouted out be the school can attend.

Sayaka will be attending as the Ultimate Idol, which was no surprise to the pigtailed girl. When Makoto first heard about her friend being selected to join Hope's Peak's 78th class, she was both sad and happy. Sad because it would mean that they wouldn't be going to the same school anymore, but still happy for her as well. Makoto would never have imagined that someone as plain and ordinary like her would ever have a chance at being able to attend such a prestigious school. She wasn't talented at anything, just average at everything she did. The only interesting thing about her was who she was best friends with, and her ability to be overly optimistic about everything.

But Makoto was proved wrong when she got a letter in the mail from Hope's Peak Academy saying that she had been accepted as this year's ultimate lucky. Though 'unlucky' would be more accurate to describe Makoto most of the time.

Makoto will never forget how she felt when she opened her acceptance letter. She was on cloud 9, freaking out as she showed her parents and sister. Knowing that she would be able to go to Hope's Peak with her BFF truly made her fill like the luckiest girl in the world.

"I'm going to miss you not being here Makoto," the enthusiasm dropped from Komaru's voice. She looked back at the TV. Makoto felt the same way; she was going to miss seeing Komaru every day as well. Then without warning, Makoto tackle hugged Komaru almost causing the two of them to fall off the bed. Komaru squealed loudly as she tried to break free of her sister's hold, which leads to her being tickled by Makoto. Sayaka puffed out her cheeks at the sight of the two sisters tickling each other.

"Hey, don't leave me out of the fun."

Before they knew it, the pop idol joined the fray, ending up with the three actually falling off the bed. Landing on the floor with a loud thud. The comedy program was long forgotten, the teens laughing on the floor in a heap. Just then Makoto's mom opened the door. "I'm happy that the three of you are having fun but it's getting late, it's time to go to bed." Makoto looked up at the digital alarm clock on her bedside table. It really was late. It's true what people say, time does fly by when you're having fun. Komaru got up straightening her clothes. "Ok mom. See you in the morning." Komaru waved goodnight at the two other girls and left to her own room.

The two remaining girls pick themselves up from the floor. "We'll go to bed soon," Makoto said to her mom as she got back on the bed. Sayaka followed her onto the bed, she's spending the night over since her father is out of town on a business trip. Makoto's parents will be dropping the two of tomorrow at their new school. They had already sent their things ahead to be placed in their dorm rooms. Tomorrow will just be just orientation and settling in. Classes begin the day after. "Goodnight girls," Ms. Naegi closed the door leaving the two alone.

"How about we go to sleep now? We do have a big day ahead of us tomorrow." Makoto nodded her head in agreement and flipped off the light. They then crawled into bed and went to sleep.

The next morning, Makoto was eating breakfast with her parents and Sayaka. Komaru had already left for her first day of school. "We'll be leaving later so make sure you're ready when it's time to go." Makoto's dad said from across the table. After all this time, the man knows how long Sayaka takes with her hair and makeup. And that's not counting the time Sayaka uses to try to dress Makoto up. "Don't worry, we will," Makoto assured him. Ms. Naegi smiled knowingly at the teenage girls.

A few hours after breakfast Makoto was sitting in front of her mirror wearing her favorite jacket-hoodie combo, a black shirt, stockings, and her red sneakers. Sayaka was currently brushing Makoto's hair, pulling it up into their usual twin pigtails on the top of her head. Sayaka is wearing her favorite white blouse, blue checkered skirt, and knee-high black socks. She was going to wear her old school uniform but changed her mind at the last second.

By time Sayaka was finished making them both look cute, and was satisfied with her work, Makoto's mom was calling for them from the bottom of the stairs. The two 17-year-olds hurried out of the room and downstairs.

Makoto and Sayaka sat in the backseat of Mr. Naegi's car, chatting away as Makoto's dad drove down the highway. "I wonder what our other classmates will be like," Sayaka said curiously. Makoto was wondering the same thing. She had meant to look it up on the school forms but forgot with all the fun she was having with Komaru and Sayaka. "We'll just have to see and find out," was Makoto's only response.

It didn't take long to see the school in the distance, which wasn't a surprise considering that Hope's Peak is the largest building in the area. Once Mr. Naegi pulled up and parked outside the school gate, Makoto and Sayaka removed their seatbelts, exiting the car. Makoto's parents got out of the car as well to hug the girls goodbye. Makoto's mom gave her a crushing hug. "Call me when orientation is over, I want to hear all about it." "I will"

Once Makoto's parents got back into the car and drove away, the two girls walked through the school gate and up to the main entrance. Makoto knew that the orientation was going to be held in the gymnasium, but seeing how big the school was they might have a hard time finding it. But that was ok; they can always ask someone for directions. Smiling at each other the new Hope's Peak students pushed open the doors to the main entrance and entered the entrance hall. That was the last thing Makoto remembered before blacking out.

notes: This is my first Danganronpa fanfic so I hope you like it. I'll do my best to keep them in character, so let me know when a character gets a little too OOC. I'm not used to writing with this characters. Anyway, this is my retelling of the first game, so let me how you liked it with a comment.


	2. Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy

Chapter 2: Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy

Consciousness began to return to Makoto, along with the feeling of someone shaking her shoulder. Her eyes felt heavy with sleep, she was still tiered. Makoto wished whoever it was shaking her would stop and give her five more minutes. But then she heard a familiar voice right next to her.

"Makoto please wake up."

The shaking continued, pulling Makoto fully out of her hazy daze. The luck student opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away. As her vision came into focus, Makoto realized she is sitting in an unfamiliar classroom with her head resting on the desk she was currently sitting in. "Finally you're up." Makoto lifted her head and saw Sayaka leaning over the desk, her face not far from the brown haired girl. "Where are we?" Makoto asked her friend. Looking around the classroom, Makoto felt a wave of confusion wash over her. This wasn't a classroom she had ever been in.

Makoto tried to remember how she ended up sleeping in this room, but as she tried to think her head started to hurt. So she stopped. "I don't know Makoto, but with the way those windows are covered gives me a bad feeling." Covered windows? Looking in the direction of the windows, Makoto saw for herself that the windows were covered with large sheets of metal held in place with giant screws. Unease settled in the luckster's stomach. That's not normal; windows shouldn't be blocked like that.

Makoto tried again to remember what had happened, this time it came to her. The last thing she remembered was walking through Hope's Peak's main entrance with Sayaka, and then everything cut out. Were they in Hope's Peak? No, that can't be right. Even if Makoto had blacked out for no reason, she would have woken up in the nurse's office, not some random classroom with blocked windows. Now that Makoto thought about it, the windows weren't covered when she saw it from the outside. Not even Sayaka looked like she knew what was happening.

The unease quickly turned to fear. Where were they? How did they get here? This thoughts swirled around and around in Makoto's head until she was pulled out of her thoughts when she saw Sayaka lean down and pick up a piece of paper off of the floor. The idol looked over the sheet of paper, like she was reading something. Makoto wasn't sure sense all she could see was the back of the paper. Sayaka lowered the paper, "It says to meet in the main entrance at 8:00." 8 o'clock? Makoto looked around for a clock, quickly finding one hanging on the wall above the chalkboard. The hands on the clock read 7:55. If the two of them were going to make it in time they were going to have to hurry. Makoto pushed the questions of where they were to the back of her mind, and got up from the desk.

Sayaka and Makoto hurried out of the strange classroom, entering a large hallway. The two ultimates found the entrance hall pretty quickly, faster than Makoto had thought they would. One the way the two noticed that every window they saw was also covered with sheets of metal. The moment the two entered the entrance hall a loud voice yelled out. "You two just make it in time, one more minute and the two of you would have been late!"

The sudden yelling almost made Makoto jump out of her skin. Standing within the entrance hall was a large group of teens, all of which looked like they were waiting for something. It wasn't hard to figure out who it was that yelled. A tall boy wearing a white uniform was pointing in their direction, his red eyes held in intensity that made Makoto look away. "Hey leave them alone; they make it in time didn't they." That had been said by a darker skinned girl wearing a red athletic jacket. The intense boy turned to look at the girl who had spoken, "You are right, they did make it in time. So no harm done."

The luckster sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, and joined the rest of group with the idol. Their seemed to be multiple small conversations being held within the large group. From what Makoto could tell from what she heard, it seems that no one else seemed to know what was happening. Everyone was confused and was trying to figure out how they ended up there. The biggest mystery was the volt like door that had taken the place of a normal doorway. It was a disturbing sight, one that Makoto didn't want to think too much about it. Or the freighting machine gun attached to the ceiling aimed at the door; though it remained at the front of her mind. After fifteen minutes past it was clear that no one else was going to show up.

It was the intense boy from before who got everyone's attention with his loud bumming voice. "Everyone, please be silent. If we are to find out what is happening it would be beneficial for us to introduce ourselves to each other. I will start, my name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and I am the ultimate moral compass." Everyone, except for a few agreed to the suggestion. The first one to speak up after Kiyotaka was tanned girl from before. "My name is Aoi Asahina, and I'm the ultimate swimmer. I can't wait to get to know all of you." Aoi proclaimed in a bubbly cheerful voice. The luckster can already tell they would get along. The remaining students then introduced themselves.

They are, Sakura Ogami, the ultimate martial artist; Byakuya Togami, the ultimate affluent prodigy; Chihiro Fujisaki, the ultimate programmer; Kiyo Kirigiri, who refused to reveal his talent; Hifumi Yamada, the ultimate fanfic writer; Toko Fukawa, the ultimate writing prodigy; Leon kuwata, the ultimate baseball star; Mondo Owada, the ultimate motorcycle gang leader; Yasuhiro Hagakre, the ultimate fortune teller; Celestia Ludenberg, the ultimate gambler; Mukuro Ikusaba, the ultimate soldier; and lastly, Ryoko Otonashi, the ultimate analyst. All together there were 16 people gathered in the entrance hall of some kind of school.

 _Ding dong bing bong_

Just as everyone finished introducing themselves, a kind of bell sound was heard over the intercom. Makoto looked around, along with several others. Then the sound of static filled the air, leaving everyone silent as they waited to see what was about to happen. "Testing, testing, one two. Is this on, can you hear me." A mysterious cheerful voice spoke over the intercom, a voice that sent chills down Makoto's spine. "Well whatever, this is your headmaster speaking, everyone is required to meet in the gymnasium for orientation. Skipping is strictly prohibited and anyone who tries will be punished. See you there."

The intercom cut out with a sense of dread. Punished? Orientation? Could they really be at Hope's peak? And if so, how had that volt door got there, why were the windows blocked? It just wasn't adding up.

The sixteen students stared at one another, uncertain if they should listen to the voice or not. Makoto could see the fear and confusion on everyone's faces at the surreal situation they were all in. It was Kiyotaka who once again cut through the tension. "It would be best to listen to the announcement and hurry to the gymnasium at once." The scary looking biker opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off when Ryoko spoke up first, brushing a stand of red hair behind her ear. "I agree with Kiyotaka, there's no point staying here." One by one, the others agreed and made their way out of the entrance hall.

Makoto stayed by Sayaka's side the whole way, first through the trophy room that served as the gym's entrance then into the gym itself. A stage with a podium is the first thing the luckster noticed. Looking around Makoto tried to see if she could see whoever it was that called them there. But there was no one to be seen. "This is stupid; if no one is going to be here I'm leaving," was Mondo's outraged yelled as he turned to leave. Just then the most bizarre thing Makoto had ever seen happened. Out from behind the podium, a black and white bear appeared, landing on top of the podium. Now that got everyone's attention.

"Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy. I am your headmaster Monokuma." The stuffed animal looking bear said with the same disturbing voice from the intercom. This really is Hopes Peak Academy. Disbelief and outrage was heard across the group of teens. Each one questioning the existence of the toy bear or if they really are where it said they are. "There's no way a stuffed animal is our headmaster." Mondo yelled above the noise of the other students, having turned back to face the stage before them. Rage flashed across the bear's face as it yelled back. "I'm not a stuffed animal, I am headmaster Mokokuma." Silence followed the bear's outburst. "And you better get used to it because you're going to be in this school for the rest of your lives." Makoto felt her flood turn to ice, that has to be some kind of sick jock. The uproar among the students returned as everyone complained about how that wasn't funny.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Monokuma was being dead serious. "That's right, you will be a part of a communal living within this school, separated from the outside world, and the only way to graduate is to kill someone in this room."

Deafening silence filled the gym with that last statement. Killing? That bear can't be serious. Then the bear began to laugh, "That's right you heard me right. The only way to graduate and leave this school is to kill a fellow classmate." It was at that moment, Makoto knew her life would never be the same again.

Notes:

And there's chapter 2, I hoped you like it. Chapters will be updated each Saturday. There is a reason for Ryoko being there, plus as you already know with Makoto and Sayaka, some characters' backstories with be changed for the story. Thank for reading and leave a comment to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always appreciated.


	3. The killing school life begins

Chapter 3: The killing school life begins

The first one to speak up after that horrifying declaration was Ryoko Otonashi. The red headed girl stepped forward, arms crossed over her chest. A determined look showed in her red eyes as she marched up to the stage. "So you're telling me that all we have to do is kill someone and we're free to go." Skepticism and disbelief dripped in her voice. The red head clearly didn't believe what they were being told. "Why of course. It's very simple, just kill anyone."

"This can't be happening dude, this is so not happening." Yasuhiro's panicked outcry went unnoticed as everyone's attention was on Ryoko as she held her ground. "Sorry but that sounds too good to be true. Even if some did kill, how would they prove that they did it instead of someone else trying to take credit for their kill to get out?" Monokuma put his paws to his mouth, almost like he was thinking. The ultimate gambler then spoke up, adding her input into the discussion. "I must agree, there is no guaranty that you would really let us out if we do as you saw. I will not take the word of a toy bear."

"Grrrrrr, it seems that you're more observant than I thought you'd be. Ok fine, I thought I would explain this later, but I guess I'll say it now." A heavy silence filled the room, everyone waiting for Momokuma to continue. "You go me. Upupupupupupu, it's not that easy to graduate. When a body is discovered, the remaining students are given a certain amount of time to investigate the crime. And then must participate in the class trial, where you must figure out the 'who did it' and if you figure it out only the blackened will receive punishment for disrupting your communal school life. And if you can't, then everyone besides the blackened will be punished, and the blackened will be able to graduate and leave. To truly graduate, you not only have to kill, but sacrifice everyone else to do it. Upuupupupupu, how exciting."

Hearing that explanation made Makoto feel faint. How could this be happening, there was no way this could be real, it just couldn't. A reassuring hand squeezed her shoulder. Looking up, Makoto saw Sayaka giving her a confident smile. The idol was doing her best to reassure her best friend.

The next person to speak up is Kiyo, the ultimate ?. "So what do you mean by punished?" Monokuma looked at the blank-faced violet haired boy.

"Execution."

That was all the bear had to say. That one word silenced everyone with dread. This was worse than any of them could have imagined. To think that something like this could occur was beyond comprehension. It was too much, far too much. "Oh yea, I should tell you that each of you have been given a ehandbook. It's like a regular handbook but digital. All you have to do is push the button to turn it on." Makoto reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small screen. The others pulled theirs out too. "You might want to look over the rules on there. It would be a shame if someone ended up punished for accidentally breaking a rule." Turning on the ehandbook the first thing to appear was her name, Makoto Naegi. Once she found the regulations, Makoto saw a list of 10 rules. Rules 7-9 being about the class trial the bear had just explained. The last one simply stated that more rules may be added if necessary.

"Now I have one more thing to give to you all." The bear then hopped off the podium, landing in front of the students. "Here are your room keys; you're going to need them." After everyone was given their individual room key, the bear hopped back onto the podium. "Now no more questions, I hope you enjoy your new school life. Happy killings." With those parting words, Monokuma jumped behind the podium and vanished from sight. Mondo ran up the stage to look being the podium but of course, there was no trace of the self-proclaimed headmaster. "Damn it, I should have slugged that bear when I had a chance," Mondo exclaimed in anger. Considering that the fifth rule clearly prohibits attacking the 'headmaster' that most likely would have ended badly for the ultimate biker.

Everyone looked at each other, no one knowing what to do next. Makoto was starting to feel faint again. This really is just too much to handle. "There is no way anyone is killing anyone," the moral compass declared loudly, gaining everyone's attention once more. "If we are to survive this, we must work together and find a way to escape. I suggest split up into groups to investigate the school to find a way out." It wasn't a bad idea, it sounded quite reasonable to the luckster. Makoto could see that the moral compass was trying his best to take charge and keep everyone together in a calmly fashion. Leadership is definitely something the need right now, though a few didn't seem to like that. And by a few, Makoto means Byakuya and Mondo. The biker narrowed his eyes at Kiyotaka, "Who made you leader here. Why should we listen to you?" Kiyotaka seemed taken aback, surprised at being challenged so quickly.

And then to add fuel to the fire, the affluent prodigy just had to open his big mouth. "I had to say this, and I mean I really hate to say this, but, I must agree with the lug head over there. I have to reason to listen to a word to say." Mondo's narrowed eyes quickly turned into a furious glare, his focus switching to the heir who was so clearly looking down on everyone. "Who the hell are you calling a lug head?" Byakuya was unfazed by the murderous look being sent his way. The heir's only reaction was to snort in amusement. "If you can't figure it out for yourself, then it seems you are dumper then I first thought." That was the worst thing Byakuya could have said. Makoto could see a vein throbbing on Mondo's forehead, that wasn't a good sight. Makoto thought she heard Kiyotaka say something about no cursing, though no one seemed to have noticed for all focus was on the heir and biker.

"I have no intention of working with any of you, so if you'll excuse me, I will be searching for a way out alone." With that said, Byakuya turned on his heel to leave but didn't get very far. Mondo stamped forward roughly grabbing a fist full of the heir's shirt, pulling him closer in the process. "You're not going anywhere. Who the hell do you think you are, looking down on everyone like that?" Byakuya narrowed his own eyes, his blue eyes glaring like sheets of ice. "I know who I am, and it's better than any of you will ever be. Now let go of me this instant you muscle ape."

That seemed to have been the last straw, Mondo raised his free hand, which was balled into a fist, getting ready to punch the stuck up affluent prodigy right in his face. The smug look on Byakuya's face seemed to drop when he realized that Mondo might actually be serious about punching him. While a part of Makoto wanted to see Byakuya get his lights knocked out, she also didn't want to see the group fighting among each other. That would only give whoever it was behind this to get what they wanted. From the crowd of students around the luckster, several voices could be heard either encouraging the biker to punch the heir or telling them to stop it. The lucky student wanted to stop them from fighting, but there was no way she was putting herself between two guys that clearly looked like they were going to kill each other, she wasn't that brave. Luckily she didn't have to. Before Mondo's fist could make contact with Byakuya's classes, Kiyotaka jumped between the two pushing them apart. "Stop this bickering this instant. Fighting is not welcome in a school environment!" Most of the moral compass's yelling was directed at Mondo, whose rage has shifted to the white clad teen now in front of him.

Freed from the biker's hold, Byakuya wasted no time backing away from the situation. His smug look returning full force. Mondo tried his best to push Kiyotaka aside to get at Byakuya, but the hall monitor showed wasn't about to allow that, doing his best to keep them separated. "Get the hell out of my way." If Mondo had looked freighting before, it was nothing compared to right now. Kiyotaka stood his ground, "I will not, and profanity is not needed in this situation." For a split second, Makoto hoped that Mondo would back down, but that was only wishful thinking. There was no way that the bad-tempered biker gang leader would have done that.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Before anyone had time to react, Mondo's fist slammed into the side of Kiyotaka head with enough force to send him crashing to the ground with a loud thud. While the black haired boy hadn't been sent flying, he did skid across the floor a few feet. Kiyotaka's head had hit the tiled floor when he landed, and he didn't seem to be getting back up. Loud gasps filled the air, many heads turning to look at Mondo with disbelief. Someone, possibly Aoi, let out a panicked, "Is he dead?" The biker looked away, his only defense being, 'he shouldn't have gotten in my way.'

Without thinking, Makoto ran to the hall monitor's side, shaking his shoulder. "Please wake up Taka," Makoto shortened his name without thinking, she just wanted him to wake up and prove that he was ok. It would be devastating to have a death and class trial on the first day. A low groan escaped past the boy's lips, his eyes twitching. Good, he was ok. Makoto looked up at everyone, who besides Mono seem relieved to see Kiyotaka hadn't died from the blow. Wait, there was someone missing. Looking around, Makoto realized that Byakuya must have slipped out of the gym during the commotion. So what, it's not like she cared about where that stuck up prick went anyway. That may not have been a nice thing to think, but hey, he wasn't nice anyway.

Without a word, Mondo left the gym to, heading who knows where. Makoto focused back on Kiyotaka who was already starting to regain consciousness. The hall monitor slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position, his left hand rubbing the newly forming bruise that was forming on his cheek. "I'm so glad you're ok Taka." Makoto said happily, still sitting on her knees right next to him. Noticing that everyone's attention was on him, Kiyotaka stood back up to his feet, "I am happy to see all of you were worried for my wellbeing. And to show my appreciation, I would like for everyone to call me by the nickname Makoto just gave me, Taka." Makoto felt her face flush; she hadn't seen that coming at all. Toko made a comment about how she hadn't been worried at all, but no one paid it any attention. Makoto felt the current group grow a little closer. Hopefully, that will be as bad as it gets.

Notes:

And there's chapter 3. thanks for reading and leave a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always appreciated.


	4. Exploring the 1st floor

Chapter 4: Exploring the 1st floor

Surprisingly it seems that bringing up the topic of nicknames was what it took to fully break the tension caused by Mondo. "That's a great idea, Taka," Aoi exclaimed practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "You can call me Hina. My friends back home call me that because it's short for my last name Asahina." Makoto couldn't help from smiling at how excited she was over a nickname. Sakura nodded her head, a smile on her face as well. "That sounds good; I'll call you Hina from now on." The swimmer's cheerfulness seemed to be contagious for almost everyone else had started to smile as well.

"Hey, I want a nickname too," Yasuhiro called out gaining the groups attention. "You can call me Hiro, because it's short for Yasuhiro." Hiro seemed quite pleased with himself, as though he thought he had said something smart. Most of the group just rolled their eyes at him. Hiro didn't seem to be proving himself to be very intelligent. But Makoto was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Who knows, he might prove them wrong later, maybe.

Celestia was the next one to speak up. The gambler rested her folded hands under her chin as she spoke, "I too would like to be referred to by a nickname. Please call be Celest everyone." Everyone agreed to the nicknames, no one had a problem with it. When no one else requested a nickname, Taka cleared his voice, bringing everyone's eyes back to him. "Now that that's settled, does anyone else object to the idea of investigating the school in groups?" Taka turned his head to look at everyone, so see if anyone did. But when no one objected, Taka nodded his head pleased and counted everyone. "We will split up into four groups of three and one group of two. You all may choose who you wish to group up with. Once we are finished searching, we will meet back up here to discuss what we have found." Taka hadn't even finished speaking when Sayaka grabbed hold of Makoto's arm. It seems that the idol was determined with to be with her best friend. Makoto felt the same way.

Hina, Sakura, and Toko made up group 1. Toko had made a big scene about how no one was going to want to group with her. And then make a bigger scene when Hina asked her if she wanted to group up with her and Sakura. Something about 'I don't need your charity' and 'you're just trying to trick me.' The writing prodigy just couldn't seem to make up her mind. Did she or did she not want to be in a group. She was going to be stressful to talk to, Makoto can already see it. Toko ends up leaving with the two athletic girls anyway. Still not looking very happy, but I little satisfied. In the second group, Ryoko invited the shy programmer to join her and Taka, who unlike Toko, was very happy to have been invited. Seeing Chihiro's face brighten up was a good thing to see. Celest, Kiyo, and Mukuro make up the third group. It was interesting to see the group's two least talkative people, being Mukuro and Kiyo, being in the same group. It seems that Celest was going to have to do most of the talking if she wants a conversation.

Makoto and Sayaka had already agreed to be the smaller two member team. No one seemed to mind since the two already knew each other. And the final group was Hifumi, Leon, and Hiro.

And that was how Makoto ended up searching the student dorms with Sayaka. Though there wasn't much to look at. With all the doors locked and everything. The first thing Makoto noticed when walking down the dorm hallway was that each door had a nameplate and picture of the person who owns the room. The luckster couldn't help smiling when she saw that Sayaka's room is right next to hers. It was the little things like that that made Makoto still feel a little lucky even during this horrible situation. There wasn't much to search unless they looked through their own rooms. "Hey Makoto, you want to check out our dorm rooms while we're here?" Makoto nodded her head, "Sure." The lucky student walked up to the door with her picture on it, pulled out her key, and unlocked the door.

The two girls walked into Makoto's dorm room. Despite being large, the room itself was very plain. Having nothing personal, unique to it. A simple twin sized bed is placed by the room's blocked windows. A desk with a chair was right next to the bed, as empty looking as everything else. A dresser with a mirror was pushed into a corner, a small round table not far from it, right next to an empty shelf. Looking through the dresser and desk, Makoto couldn't find anything that she had sent ahead to the school. But she did see a sewing kit with a diagram of the human body showing the vital areas that one can stab, most likely with the needles. Yeah, that definitely wasn't disturbing.

The only clothes in the dresser she saw was a pair of pajamas, a few outfits identical to the one she was currently wearing, and a school swim suit? Was there a pool somewhere? If there is, she's positive that Hina would love that. "I wonder what happened to all your stuff," Sayaka said, trying to get one of the metal plates to move from the window with no luck.

Makoto shrugged her shoulders, "Who knows. Maybe whoever trapped up here took it." The idol nodded in agreement. The only thing left to look at was another door across from the bed. It was most likely a bathroom. Makoto grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it, only to find that the door was locked. That's strange why would it be locked? Having seen Makoto being unable to open the door, Sayaka walked over to where the luckster was. "Is it locked Makoto?" Makoto turned to face the idol, but before she would confirm that the door was, in fact, locked another voice spoke up.

"That's right, upupupupupu. All of the girls' dorm room bathrooms have locks on them. So this door is currently locked." Sayaka jumped in the air, while Makoto let out a surprised squeak at the sudden and unwelcomed appearance of Monokuma. The bear seemed amused by the girls' reactions. It put its paws up to its mouth in mock concern, "Why so jumpy? Did I scare my students, or are you just happy to see me." Makoto could only glare at the robotic half and half bear. Sayaka was the one who had to bring the conversation back to the locked bathroom door. "So how do we unlock the bathroom?" Monokuma seemed delighted to be asked a question. "You have to use your room keys of course. Though only the girls' bathrooms have locks on them, it would be silly for there to be locks on the boys' bathrooms."

The lucky student didn't understand what the bear was getting at but chose not to question it. "Oh, and one more thing, all of the girls' dorms come with a sewing kit while the boys' dorm rooms have tool kits." Makoto once more pulled out her room key, inserting it into the bathroom keyhole. Sure enough, the door unlocked, opening right up. "You can go now," Makoto told the bear, no longer wanting it in her room. The bear lowered its head sadly. Makoto would never understand how a mechanical bear could be so expressive. "That's mean, and after I went to the trouble of telling you how to unlock your bathroom." Makoto had to intention of apologizing for being 'mean' and gave the half and half bear a look to show it. "Fine be that way, I'm leaving. I don't need this." Monokuma then bounced out of sight, seemingly vanishing in plain sight.

Sayaka and Makoto looked at one another. Shrugging, Makoto walked into the bathroom to look around. It was a small plain bathroom with a toilet, shower, and sink with a mirror hung above it. There was nothing interesting about it, so after a quick look over, Makoto walked back out. Leaving the room, Makoto locked the door behind them.

There is a garbage room with an incinerator in the back, but a locked gate separated it from the rest of the room. And kept them from being able to get a good look at it. Soon after the two find themselves walking into the cafeteria, where Taka, Ryoko, and Chihiro can be seen already inside. "Sayaka, Makoto, I was hoping the two of you would stop by here," Taka exclaimed a little too loudly. "Taka and I have decided to change meeting places, we've already told the other groups that we will be meeting up in here instead of the gym. That way we'll have somewhere to sit while we have our group meetings."

Meetings? Was that also something they had discussed about alone? Before Makoto could ask about it, Toko, Sakura, and Hina walked in. Soon followed by Celest, Kiyo, and Mukuro. Once all of the groups conjoined in the cafeteria everyone took a seat at the long table placed in the center of the room. Surprisingly enough, Mondo seemed to have found his way into the group without being noticed. Though Makoto could see Taka giving the biker side glances every so often. The last one to have arrived was Byakuya who had said something along the lines of 'I'm not here because I care about this meeting; I just have nothing better to do.' Unlike the others, Byakuya took a seat on a small round table near where the others sat but still separated from them. Taka stood at the head of the table, looking around the table to look at each one of them. "Now our first meeting will begin. The first matter of business to discuss is what we discovered while investigating the school." A few rolled their eyes at the hall monitor's redundant words.

"It seems that only first floor is available. We found a large locked gate blocking off the stairs to the second floor." Mukuro spoke up, her hard cold eyes leaving no room for doubts. A thoughtful look crossed Kiyo's face. "What purpose could there be to keeping us confined to the first floor?" No one had an answer for that. The next to speak up was the martial artist. "I checked all the windows, but none of the sheets of metal would budge." Little Chihiro lifted her hand into the air as if they were in class. "We saw a nurse's office, but it was locked." Despite her quiet tone, Makoto heard her just fine. Ryoko nodded her head, "Plus we saw a Storage room that was also locked."

"It seems our places to explore are quite limited." Celest pointed out with a poker face. After that, everyone discussed what they had found out, which wasn't much. The meeting was ended soon after when a familiar bell rang out.

Ding dong bing bong

The screen on the wall flickered on, showing the bear they all already hated. "It is 10:00, and officially night time. The doors to the cafeteria will be locked soon and entry after that point is strictly prohibited. One more thing, all water will be just off at 10 o'clock and won't be turned back on at 7 o'clock the next morning. Goodnight, don't let the bedbugs bite." When the nighttime announcement finished, everyone began to get up from their chairs. But before anyone could leave, Celest cleared her throat, gaining everyone's attention. "Before we call it a night, I would like to suggest adding a rule. I know I would feel safer if everyone stayed in their rooms during nighttime. I'm sure you all feel the same way. That way we all can sleep without worrying about what someone might be up to."

"I agree with Celest." Taka agreed. "To ensure everyone's safety, a nighttime rule is an excellent idea." Celest nodded her head in appreciation to Taka backing her idea up. "Of course since this isn't an official rule, no one is required to follow it, though it will only work if everyone agrees to follow it. Does anyone oppose this new nighttime rule?" Celest asked with a sweet smile on her face. When no one opposed the suggested rule, Celest's smile widened. "That's good, it seems we all will sleep easier tonight. See you all in the morning." With that everyone left the cafeteria and headed to their own rooms for the night.


	5. The Breakfast Meeting

Chapter 5: The Breakfast Meeting

After returning to her room, Makoto pulled the pair of PJ's from the dresser. With the water supposedly turned off, Makoto will just have to wait until morning to take a shower. Reaching into her jacket pocket, Makoto reached for her key to be put away in one of the desk drawers. The luckster didn't want to risk it falling out and getting lost. That was the last thing she needed. Unfortunately, she didn't feel the key in her pocket. But she did feel a hole. Makoto could feel herself starting to panic. How had a hole gotten there, there hadn't been one when she put in on earlier that day. Makoto sighed, first day and her key was already gone. What a surprise. Makoto removed her jacket to examine the hole.

Makoto felt a sense of relief wash over her when she realized that the hole was to the inside of the pocket, not outside. So anything within would just get lost in the jacket's lining, instead of falling out for anyone to find. With a brightened mood, Makoto felt the lining of the jacket and sure enough, she felt the key, and something else. The hole wasn't very big, so it took a while to get both the key and the unknown second object out of her jacket. At last, she found herself holding her dorm key and a white bunny hair clip? When did she get that? Makoto had no recollection of having ever owned that, but at the same time, it looked familiar, strange. Makoto didn't know what to make of it, but it was only a hair clip, nothing important. Shrugging off her discovery, Makoto opened the desk drawer closest to her bed and sat the key and clip within before reclosing it.

After that, Makoto quickly changing into the light blue pajamas, placing the clothes she had been wearing into the clothes hamper. Having double checked to see if she had locked the door, which she had to quickly do, Makoto turned off the lights and went to bed.

~line~

It wasn't until hours later that Makoto found herself falling sleep. It had been hard, with everything that had happened, to shut her brain off and just relax. The thought of having to kill weighed heavily on her mind. Makoto wasn't sure how long she was asleep but it didn't feel very long when she found herself rudely awakened by the sound of a TV turning on. Sitting up, with an aggravated groan, Makoto saw the monitor had flickered on, with Monokuma's image displayed on it like it had the night before. "Good morning, it's now 7 o'clock and time to begin the day. The cafeteria is now open, though you'll have to make your own breakfast, cause I'm not doing it. Now everyone have a beautiful day."

There was no point in going back to sleep now. Makoto got out of the bed, quickly pulling the sheet back to make it look neat, and then went to take a shower. She had just gotten in when she heard the sound of someone pressing the intercom button outside of her dorm room. Makoto groaned to herself, whoever it is can wait until she's finished. Standing under the shower head, the luckster enjoyed the feel of the warm water flowing over her body. Washing away the stress of the day before.

Rinsing off, Makoto stepped out of the shower refreshed and ready to start the day. She then wrapped the fluffy white towel around her body and left the bathroom. Once back in the main room, Makoto opened her drawer and pulled out a clean outfit. It only took a few minutes to get dressed. The towel could only dry her hair so much, so it was still damp when she picked up her hair brush and started brushing. There weren't any tangles so it didn't take long to brush her long hair into their typical ponytails. Satisfied, for now, Makoto looked over to the desk where the mysterious hair clip was. Might as well wear it. Walking over to the desk, the luckster pulled out the clip and room key. The key went into her pocket, the one without the hole of course. Back in front of the mirror above the dresser, Makoto clipped the bunny clip into her hair, just above her right pigtail. The site of the hair clip in her hair brought back the strange feeling of familiarity.

In a way, it almost felt as if it belonged there. _As though she had always worn that clip_. But that can't be right, can it? Makoto didn't even remember ever owning the thing in the first place, so why did it feel like she had worn it many times. Makoto racked her brain trying to recall something, but nothing came. But before she could think too much about it, she once again heard someone ringing her room's intercom. She might as well see what they wanted. Unlocking the door, Makoto opened up to the sight of Sayaka standing on the other side of her door. A look of relief washed over the idol's face when she saw Makoto open up. "Thank God you answered. Everyone was worried when you didn't show up to the breakfast meeting. Well almost everyone. "Breakfast meeting? What are you talking about?" Makoto asked her friend confusedly. Now it was Sayaka's turn to look confused, "You didn't see the note Taka slipped under your door?"

Wait, he had? Makoto looked down and sure enough, a neatly folded note rested on the floor between her feet. Picking it up, Makoto unfolded it. On the note it read,

 _Breakfast Meeting in the cafeteria_

Oh, so Taka did leave a note. "Wait, did you get a note to?" Makoto asked Sayaka curiously. "No, just you. Taka went to each of our doors to tell us that we were having a breakfast meeting. He said that he slipped a note under your door when you didn't answer. I was getting worried when you didn't show up, so I volunteered to try to get you again." Makoto nodded her head, so it was Taka who knocked on her door earlier. She felt a little bad for making the others worry like that. "I was taking a shower, I'm sorry for worrying you." Sayaka smiled warmly, "That's ok Makoto, but we should hurry, Taka didn't seem happy when you didn't show up. And that jerk Byakuya had the nerve to joke about someone already being dead. I could tell that Mondo wanted to hit him over it, but he held himself back."

"I see," Makoto said trying to take all that in. Sayaka stepped out of the way, allowing Makoto to walk through the doorway. Makoto locked the door back and the two walked to the cafeteria in silence. Just as they reached the doors, Sayaka looked over at Makoto. "Where did you get that hair clip, I've never seen it before." This took Makoto by surprise, not expecting her friend to notice something as insignificant as a hair clip. "I'm not sure; I found it in the lining of my jacket last night. Cute isn't it." Sayaka nodded in agreement. Clearly not wanting to question it further. "It is cute." Without another word, Makoto opened the doors and the two entered the cafeteria.

Just like the night before, everyone but Byakuya was sitting at the long table. Except unlike last time, Toko was also sitting there, much to Byakuya's displease. Everyone had a tray of food in front of them. "Which made sense, since it was breakfast time. Upon seeing the two girls, Taka stood up from his chair looking irritated. " **MAKOTO NAEGI** ," The moral compass yelled out, grabbing the attention of everyone in the cafeteria. "You better have a good explanation for why you are so late to this meeting." All eyes turned to look at the lucky student, who rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Sorry about that Taka. I took a shower right after waking up, so I didn't see your note until Sayaka knocked on my door." Taka appeared to take that into consideration, for he then said, "I see. I will over look your tardiness this time, for personal hygiene is also important."

After grabbing something to eat, Makoto sat down with everyone else. The lucky student found herself sitting between Ryoko and Hiro, with Chihiro right across from her. Out of the corner of her eye, Makoto thought she saw a surprised look flash in Ryoko's eyes. But if only lasted a second, so she wasn't sure if she had really seen it or not. Makoto might have questioned it, if her attention hadn't been redirected towards Taka. "While you were absent, we were discussing who could have trapped us within this school and how they could have taken over Hope's Peak without anyone noticing. And we all agreed that whoever it is must be the one controlling Monokuma. We also decided to refer to them as the mastermind. " the other's seemed satisfied to let Taka recap their earlier discussions to the luckster.

Now Makoto wished she had seen the note sooner; that sounded like an important discussion to be a part of. It certainly made Makoto wander who would trap high-schoolers in a school. What kind of a sick person would make teenagers kill each other? Whoever this mastermind is, Makoto determined to make sure that they don't get their way. There was no way any of them would actually kill someone. Not with the knowledge of the class trial that would follow. Makoto had to believe that, had to believe that everyone would stay strong, would not give into despair and fall into the mastermind's hands. Looking around the table, Makoto took a good look at the fifteen people around her. These were ultimates, alone they were strong and talented, but if they worked together there was no way they would lose. They just couldn't.

"I wish there was something to do. If I don't find a way to stay active, I think I might die." Hina's whine, most of the group's attention. While Makoto could sympathize, saying 'die' might not have been the best word to use in this situation. It was clear others felt the same way. Sakura, who was sitting next to the swimmer, rested her large hand on Hina's shoulder. "Just be patient Hina, we'll find a way out soon. Plus we can always go to the gym to find something to do." Hina brightened back up, "Your right. Let's go there once the meeting over." It was nice to see the two bond together; their friendship just seemed to click.

Soon after, Taka ended the meeting, but not before announcing that there was also going to be a dinner meeting at 7 pm, so everyone can discuss what they found during that day. Taka then left to try to find something they might have missed the day before. Most of the group filled out right after to do who knows what. It wasn't like there was much to do while restricted to the floor after all. Only a few stayed behind to chat. Makoto finished eating her breakfast then placed the tray in the kitchen sink to wash. Once she returned, Makoto saw that the only one left in the cafeteria was the ultimate analyst. Ryoko seemed to notice her, for the red haired girl waved the lucky student over. "Hey Makoto, you want to hang out, got nothing better to do." Makoto could understand that there really wasn't much to do. She didn't have to think about it; why not try to get to know the people she's trapped with?

"Sure, I'd love to."

"Great"


	6. Ryoko's free-time event

Chapter 6: Ryoko's free-time event

"I like your hair clip Makoto, it's really cute." After leaving the cafeteria, Ryoko and Makoto went to Makoto's room to hang out. The luckster is currently sitting on the edge of her bed with the red haired analyst propped up on her knees behind her. With Makoto's hair brush in one hand and her hair in the other, Ryoko brushed down the luckster's long brown hair. The hair clip resting in Makoto's closed hand. For whatever reason Ryoko wanted to brush Makoto's hear, and she had no problem with it. It was no different than the times she would hang out with her Komaru and Sayaka. So far the other girl seemed nice and easy to be around.

"Thank you, I think it's cute to." Makoto thought about her sister. With them only being there for two days, Makoto's family would have no reason to expect anything unusual. As far as they knew she was starting her new school year at Hope's Peak Academy. Makoto remembered hugging her mom outside the school gate as she said goodbye and promising to call after orientation. Which of course never happened. Would her mom have gotten worried when she didn't call, and could she have tried to call her instead only for no one to answer. There was no way to know, not with her phone missing. Makoto was starting to miss her family. Being trapped in this school away from them had left a ball of unease in her stomach that wouldn't go away.

Makoto was pulled out of her thoughts when Ryoko stopped brushing. "So Makoto, where did you get it." It sounded like an honest question of curiosity, but when she turned her head to look at the analyst, she saw an intense look in her eyes. There was no telling if Ryoko was even aware of it or not. Though Makoto had to admit it was strange how the other girl seemed to care so much about a little hair clip. Once more Makoto tried to think about how she got it. How did she come to own the bunny clip? Did she buy it at a store, or did someone give to her? Still, nothing would come to her. She wanted to answer Ryoko's question, but she just didn't know were. So she answered the only way she could. "I can't remember actually. I found it in my pocket lining last night. Who knows how long it might have been there." Makoto added the last part so it wouldn't sound too strange. Even Makoto had to admit it would have sounded strange to just happen to find a hair clip in your pocket that you don't remember owning.

Ryoko appeared to deem in thought for a moment, then said. "That's ok, I was just wandering. It just reminded me of a hair clip I used to own. I gave it to a friend for her birthday a few years ago." Makoto nodded her head and turned back around so Ryoko could continue brushing. That sounded nice of her. "Did she like it," Makoto wasn't sure why she asked, it just came out before she realized it. 'Oh, she loved it, wore it in her hair every day afterward." That brought a smile to Makoto's face. Whoever Ryoko's friend is, they must be quite close. Like her and Sayaka.

"What's your friend's name? Are the two of you close?"

Ryoko sat down the brush, separating Makoto's hair into three parts. The only hair on in her grip was her ahoge. The luckster could feel her hair being breaded. "It's not important, we aren't close anymore anyway." Ryoko sounded a little sad as she said that. Which make Makoto feel sad too. "What Happened," Makoto asked as the other finished fixing her hair into a single braid down her back. "We had a falling out, difference in interests you can say. We were close friends for three years, but sometimes friendships don't last. Even if we want them to." Makoto kind of understood what she was getting at, nothing lasts forever. Standing up the lucky student walked over to her mirror to put the clip back in her hair.

"Hey Makoto, I've noticed that you and Sayaka are close, did the two of you know each other before waking up here?" The question took Makoto my surprise, not expecting to be asked that. But of course the others wouldn't know of their friendship, to them they would have appeared to have just clicked, like Hina and Sakura. "Yes we have. We've been best friends sense grade school. In a way I think of her more as a sister than a friend. Sayaka spent more time at my house than her own when we growing up." Thinking about those happier times, made a genuine smile cross Makoto's face.

"Why's that?" Ryoko asked genuinely curious. "Well, Sayaka's dad is a single father with a busy job. He's always working, so she would stay at my house most of the time while he worked. Me and my sister, Komaru became like sisters to her. She was lonely with us around." Komaru was also like a sister to Sayaka, Makoto couldn't forget that.

Ryoko, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, leaned in, a cheeky grin on her face. "You got a boyfriend Makoto." If the other question had surprised her, this one took Makoto for a loop. A boyfriend? Why would Ryoko ask that? Though it was just the red head's way of getting to know the lucky student. Makoto never had a boyfriend before. There were a few boys she had thought were cute during middle school, but had never really met one she actually considered asking out. She just hadn't found the right one yet. Makoto could see that Ryoko was waiting for an answer, so the luckster answered, "No I haven't."

A knowing smile replaced the cheeky grin, "That's ok; you'll find the right one eventually." Makoto couldn't help the small blush that flushed across her cheeks. Ryoko really was an easy girl to hang out with. Makoto could clearly see the two of them becoming friends. Makoto sat back down on the bed, next to the analyst. "So Ryoko, do you have a boyfriend?"

"You bet I do," Ryoko declared proudly. "He's a childhood friend of mine, I've known him forever. He's really cute and smart, though he is short tempered and impatient. Most people can't stand him because of his attitude. He's just one of those people that have to grow on you." Ryoko continued speaking, going on and on about the man who she deeply cared about. Makoto just let her ramble without interruption. She spoke of childhood summer trips to the beach, when she first realized she was in love with her best friend Matsuda. Soon enough Makoto found herself talking about her own childhood. About how Sayaka would join her and her family on many summer vacations. About how both she and the idol had found an injured crane and nursed it back to health together in middle school. Ryoko seemed amazed that it had somehow found its way into their school pool. Makoto still didn't understand how it got there.

Makoto had no idea how long they that been sitting there talking, discussing anything that would come to mind. The luckster had to admit, it felt nice talking with someone new. It's not that she didn't have any friends outside of Sayaka, she was also close to the idol's band members as well, but she just didn't have any other close friends at her other school. There were a few friends she had hung out with a few times, but if Makoto was to be honest with herself, they were more like acquaintances then actual friends.

Most people over the years had only been friendly with her to get close with Sayaka, the famous idol. It was aggravating, but Makoto wouldn't trade their friendship for anything. Before Makoto knew it, she found herself talking about how she would go to all of Sayaka's concerts, if she was able to. Sayaka considered her to be her #1 fan.

"You know Makoto, I know a lot of people who wouldn't consider luck a talent, but it must take a lot of luck to become best friends with the most popular idol in Japan. And if it weren't for this horrible situation, being able to attend Hope's Peak with said best friend." Those last words brought down the mood a bit. If it wasn't for this killing game, if thinks had gone the way it was supposed to, all sixteen of them would be classmates, attending class and just hanging out normally. Instead of being expected to kill each other. It was a sad think to consider that that possibility hadn't happened. Before all of this, Makoto had considered herself to be lucky to be accepted, but now, she wasn't so sure. But if it meant she was able to be there for her friend it was worth it. Makoto has Sayaka's back, just as she knew Sayaka had hers. Makoto snapped back to focus when Ryoko stood up. Makoto could feel that it wasn't going to be easy staying positive in this place, but she knew that if they didn't keep hope of rescue they won't make it.

"It's about lunch time; you want to go get something to eat." Makoto looked at her clock, and realized it was about one. Had they really been talking for that long? Now that Ryoko had mentioned food, Makoto felt like she could use a snack to hold her over under they had dinner. "Sure, that sounds good." Ryoko linked their arms together and they headed out of the room to the cafeteria.

~line~

There's chapter 6, I hope you liked it. Feedback is always welcome, so please leave a review to let me know what you thought.


	7. The fortune teller

Chapter 7: The fortune teller

Makoto had quickly made herself a sandwich to eat. Ryoko had a similar idea and the two eat their food while sitting at a small round table near the entrance to the kitchen. During this, a few people drifted in to get a quick bite to eat. At one point, Kiyo Kirigiri walked in. There was something about him that grabbed Makoto's attention. Maybe it was the mysterious air he had about him. There was something almost familiar about him; as if she had met him before. But that can't be right, Makoto was sure she would remember meeting someone like him. It was like the hair clip, familiar enough to grab her attention but too far out of reach for her to remember. Where was all of this déjà vu coming from? It wouldn't stop nagging at the back of her mind.

Not long after Kiyo left Hiro walked in, "Sup. Looks like you had the same idea." Makoto waved at the crazy haired fortune teller. "Hey Hiro, you want to join us?" A smile spread across the tan boy's face. "You mean that dude, really? I would love to join you for lunch." Hiro then hurried into the kitchen to grab something to eat. Out of the corner of her eye, Makoto saw Ryoko roll her eyes, but the red head didn't say anything. It didn't take long for Hiro to fix himself something to eat, and he was soon back in the cafeteria sitting with the two girls.

"I can't believe how serious everyone is taking this. I admit I did panic at first, but once I calmed down I realized how silly this is. This is all some big joke by the people upstairs. I just know it, dude. It has to be a prank, there's no way we actually have to kill each other. No doubt about it." Makoto froze at those words. Did Hiro really not understand the situation they were in? Had he truly convinced himself this wasn't real? There was no other explanation for what Hiro had just said and for how chill he currently was. The luckster wanted to correct him, but she also didn't want to burst his bubble and cause him to panic. In the end, Makoto decided to go with it. "Whatever you say, Hiro."

Ryoko, on the other hand, was giving him a scrutinizing look, as though judging his intelligence. Makoto was happy that she didn't call him out on this just being a prank. Hiro will figure it out for himself eventually.

Thinking about Hiro's talent, Makoto wondered if he could actually predict things or if he was just another scammer. Well, he is the ultimate fortune teller, so who knows maybe Hiro is the real deal. Even though Makoto knew that was a stretch. As if knowing what she was thinking, Hiro suddenly says, "Hey, you want me to read your fortune. I'll give you a free reading just this once." 'Wait, free reading? He charges people for his readings? Well, he has to make a living too I suppose', Makoto thought. Ryoko, who had already finished eating, stood up from the table. "No thank you Hiro, I'm not interested. Besides I've got something I need to do." The red headed analyst left the cafeteria, leaving Makoto with Hiro. It was clear that was just an excuse to leave. Makoto can hang out with her again later.

Hiro seemed disappointed by the rejection, but his upbeat attitude remained. He didn't seem like the person to be easily discouraged. "What about you Makoto, want me to read your future. Don't worry I've got a 30% accuracy rate." Just 30%, that's rather low. Once more Hiro answered her unasked question. "I know what you're thinking, that's low but if you consider that I'm giving actual fortunes, it's really high. I am the ultimate fortune teller after all." The sheer confidence and pride Hiro has for his questionable talent are probably what made Makoto decide to give Hiro the benefit of the doubt.

"Sure Hiro, go ahead."

Hiro gasped in surprise, "You mean that dude? You really mean that?" The crazy haired boy laughed in delight. "I'll be happy to, but I need to get my tools first." She smiled back at him, "You can go get them if you want, I'm not going anywhere." Hiro excitedly hopped up from his chair. "I'll be right back. I will give you the best reading I can." He then sprinted out. If Taka was here, he would have no doubtable have gotten on to him for running. Makoto folded her arms in front of her, resting her chin on top of them. It shouldn't take Hiro long, but you never know.

"Hello Makoto," A sudden voice to her left startled Makoto badly. Letting out a stretch, Makoto almost fell out of her seat. Snapping her to the left to see who had spoken, the lucky student saw Mukuro standing a few feet from her. Her usual stoic expression had turned to a look of surprise. The short haired girl mustn't have expected Makoto's startled reaction. To be fair, Makoto hadn't either. How embarrassing, to have been startled by someone talking. This place was making her jumpy. "I'm sorry Makoto; I didn't mean to make you jump." Makoto opened her mouth to tell her that she didn't need to apologize but was cut off when the doors to the cafeteria burst open.

"IS EVERYONE OK," Taka's loud voice carried throughout the room. Startled once again, Makoto found herself giving the moral compass a 'deer caught in the headlights look'. The soldier quickly recovered her composer. "Everything's fine Taka. I simply startled Makoto." Taka nodded his head, "I see. That's good, I'm glad no one's hurt. I was worried when I heard someone squeal in alarm." Makoto felt her face heat up. Here she was once more unintentionally worrying others.

Taka lowered his head, a look of guilt on his face. "I am ashamed to admit that I had thought the worse, that someone had fallen to the mastermind's temptations and harmed another student." No, that wouldn't do, Makoto wasn't going to let him beat himself up over that. Mukuro spoke up first, "That's alright Taka. Anyone would have made the same mistake." "That's right, all that madders is that you quickly reacted to what you thought was danger. I appreciate the concern, even though it was unnecessary." Makoto's words seemed to please Taka. "Thank you Makoto, your words are appreciated as well. Now if that is all, I will be going." Taka turned and left, closing the doors behind him.

Once he was gone, Makoto remembered what had started the whole thing in the first place. Looking back at Mukuro, the lucky student said. "So Mukuro, I never got to ask, but what are you doing here. Are you getting something to eat?" Mukuro shook her head, "No I was going to ask if you wanted to hang out with me." It was a nice offer, one that Makoto would have normally accepted. She almost did, but luckily before she could open her mouth she remembered Hiro. Makoto gave the soldier a sad look, "I'm sorry Mukuro but I can't I've already promised Hiro I'd hang out with him. He's going to read my fortune." A flicker of disappointment flashed in Mukuro's icy blue eyes. "That's ok, I understand." She was about to leave but Makoto quickly stopped her. She might not be able to hang out with the soldier now, but that didn't mean that they can't hang out later. "We can hang out later though. If you still want to?" Mukuro gave her a thoughtful look, then smiled pleased. "That sounds good, I'll see you later then."

As Mukuro was leaving, Hiro walked in carrying what looked like a deck of cards and a crystal ball. "I'm back." It must have been Mukuro's soldier training that allowed her to quickly move out of Hiro's way so quickly. If not, the two of them would have collided and that ball Hiro is holding might have hit the floor and broke. Hiro gave Mukuro a sheepish laugh, "Sorry Mukuro, I didn't see you there." Mukuro simply responded with a 'that's ok' and left through the door. Hiro just shrugged it off and walked back over to where Makoto is sitting.

"Sorry it took me so long, Taka stopped me in the hallway and chewed be out for walking too fast. I can't help it if I was excited. I love telling a good fortune." Hiro sat down opposite of Makoto setting up his things. "Let's get started, so do you want me to predict your future, love life, etc." Makoto wasn't really sure, "I don't know any would be good enough for me." Hiro thought that over then exclaimed, "I'll just give you a full reading. How about that?" The Luckster nodded her head. "That sounds good."

A serious look then crossed the fortune teller's face. Moving cards around, Hiro seemed entirely focused on this reading. Makoto had no idea what he was doing, but all that mattered was that Hiro knew what he was doing. It's not like she expected him to actually predict the future, this was just a way for her to bond with him and hopefully become friends. The closer the group becomes, the harder it will be for the mastermind the get them to kill. After what felt like forever, which really wasn't that long, Hiro looked up from the table. A big grin on his face. "I got it. I've got two amazing predictions for you. I'm 30% positive that they will happen." At least Hiro was convinced that his readings will happen.

"Ok, what are they," Makoto couldn't help feeling a little curious about what he might have seen. Not that she believed in that of course. "The first one is about your love life. It's 'you will reform a lost connection with your soul mate and save him with the power of your luck.'" Hiro frowned, "That's strange, did you have a boyfriend before Makoto?" The luckster shook her head puzzled. How can she reform a connection she never had. Hiro scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe it's talking about a connection you had in a past life. That could be it." For obvious reasons, Makoto didn't think so. "But the part about luck though. You'll save him with luck? Well, you are the ultimate lucky student, so being able to save someone with luck shouldn't be that surprising."

Makoto wasn't convinced, but it did sound interesting. She was going to save her supposed love with her luck? The thought alone almost made Makoto laugh. How was she supposed to do that when she was more unlucky than lucky?

Once Makoto's focus was back on the boy in front of her, Hiro read out his second prediction. This one would leave Makoto for confused than the other. One that would stick with her for a good while. "Ok here it is, this one is about your future. 'A shining hope will be born. A hope that will defeat the queen of Ultimate Despair, and will rise to become the queen of Hope. This hope will be the world's salvation.'"

~line~

author's note:

This chapter was originally going to be about Mukuro, but then Yasuhino walked in and took over the chapter. I don't know, it just happened. But it seems that Hiro had a real vision of the future, or did he? The next chapter will be Mukuro's time to bond.

Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always welcome.


	8. Mukuro's free-time event

Chapter 8: Mukuro's fee-time event

The moment those words left Hiro's mouth a shiver ran up Makoto's spine. Now that was a prediction. One that left her feeling disturbed. Queen of Despair? Queen of Hope? The world's salvation? How did any of that relate to her future? A part of Makoto wanted to believe that an ordinary girl like her could actually have such an amazing sounding future. But it was just too far-fetched. Hiro was just trying to sound cool, that's all there was to it. Right?

Once Makoto looked back at Hiro, she noticed that he also looked surprised. He blinked his eyes a few times as if trying to figure out what happened. He should know, he's the one who read her fortune. "That was so weird dude, that didn't feel like my usual predictions at all. Where did that even come from?" The look on Hiro's face was genuine confusion. If Hiro was just making this all up; he was really pulling out all the stops to make it seem genuine. A part of her had a feeling that Hiro wasn't someone who could pull an act like that off. Makoto didn't know why it was just a feeling.

"upupupupu, looks like our resident clairvoyant has actually told an actual prediction. Or did he?" The sudden appearance of that cheerful voice startled Makoto. Whipping her head around, Makoto glared at the half and half bear. Monokuma stood not far from them, his paws placed over his mouth, as though to keep himself from laughing. "What do you want," Makoto demanded. That bear is nothing but a symbol of their imprisonment in this school, and Makoto hated the sight of it. Before coming here, Makoto could have said that she didn't really hate anything. But now she really hated the self-proclaimed headmaster. "Why so mad Makoto, I was just checking up on two of my precious students." Makoto glared at the bear in disbelieve, "Yea right."

A laugh to her left snapped Makoto out of her one sided glaring contest with the bear. Makoto looked back at Hiro, who was now laughing like this whole situation was funny. It took Makoto a minute to remember that Yasuhiro still things this is one big joke. "How long are you going to keep up the charade dude, I know you're just messing with us." Monokuma tilted his head to the side, in what was supposed to be a cute show of confusion. But there was nothing cute about that bear. It's nothing but a puppet that the mastermind uses to communicate through. "You still think this isn't real?" The look of confusion was quickly replaced with anger. The half and half bear lifted his paws in the air, sharp metal claws unsheathing from where they were hidden. The sudden change in attitude made the two students jump in surprise. "I knew you were stupid, but this is ridiculous."

Poor Hiro looked like he was about to bolt from the cafeteria. "Why are you so angry all of a sudden, what did I do?" Just like before, the bear's attitude once more changed abruptly. Monokuma was now pouting, clearly looking disappointed. Makoto once again found herself wondering how a robot can be so expressive. "If you can't figure it out yourself, then there's no point in my trying to explain it." Yasuhiro, who had calmed down, asked "So why are you here? You said something about my prediction when you first got here." Makoto was surprised that he could remember that. Monokuma looked directly at Hiro, "Since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you." Monokuma said cheerfully. "I heard that prediction you made, and I just had to say something." Yasuhiro obviously didn't know where this was going. "Hope will defeat despair?" Now the bear was angry again. "How absurd, despair is far greater than hope. Soon enough you all will be filled with despair, all I'll enjoy it every step of the way. Upupupupupupu."

With that, Monokuma bounced out of sight. Well, that ruined the mood. The fact that the bear felt the need to comment on Hiro's prediction didn't sit well with Makoto. It was something he made up. And what was that whole thing about despair? It didn't make any sense. Hiro then stood up from the table. Picking up his things, the fortune teller had a thoughtful look on his face. "I'll talk to you later dude, I've got to rethink our situation." Hiro then hurried out of the room, leaving Makoto along. She had a feeling that Hiro trying to figure this that out alone might not end well. Sighing to herself, Makoto stood up and headed back to her dorm room.

The luckster flopped down onto her bed. This was already turning out to be the most exhausting day of her life. A lot had happened. First, she was late to the breakfast meeting, then spent the rest of the morning with Ryoko, and just now hung out with Yasuhiro. Which left her more mentally drained with it was worth. Having woken up early, Makoto felt like she could use a nap. A nap sounded good about now. Closing her eyes, the lucky student drifted off to sleep.

Sometime later, she was woken up by the sound of the room's intercom. Opening her eyes, Makoto sat up in her bed. The ring was heard again. It only took a few seconds to get up and open the door. On the other side stood Mukuro. That's right, Makoto did promise to hang out with her. "Hey Mukuro you want to come in," Makoto stepped back from the door to let the other girl in. The soldier walked into the room, then stood in the middle of the room. "I like your hair." The sudden compliment took the luckster by surprise. It took Makoto a minute to remember that her hair was still in the braid from when she hung out with Ryoko earlier. "Thank you, Ryoko did it. Do you think it looks better like this or in the big tails?"

Mukuro gave her a good look over then looked away. "I think it's cuter in the braid." Makoto thanked Mukuro again then asked her what she wanted to do. "How about we go to the gymnasium?" It sounded like a good enough idea. "That sounds good, let's go." A faint smile appeared on Mukuro's face as they left the room.

Once in the gym, Makoto saw that it was empty. She remembered Sakura and Hina talking about going to the gym at breakfast. They most have already left. Mukuro picked up a random basketball from the floor. The ball appeared to have plenty of air in it. Mukuro then dribbled the ball a few times to see it will bounce. It did. Satisfied, Mukuro asked Makoto, "You want to play some basketball, there's a hoop over there." Makoto looked in the direction that the soldier was pointing, and saw the basketball hoop on one of the walls. "That sounds fun, though I don't really know how to play." Mukuro tossed the ball to Makoto, who just barely managed to catch it. "That's ok; we're just here to have fun. You don't have to be good it to do that, right?"

A playful smirk graced the soldier's face. Makoto smiled too, "You're right, it's all about having fun." Makoto then walked closer to the hoop and threw the ball. It missed of course, not even close. "Well, I tried." Makoto ran after the ball. Picking it up, she through it to Mukuro, "your turn." Mukuro nodded her head then tossed the ball into the air. The basket ball flew through the air, dunging cleanly through the hoop. The two took turns throwing the ball. With Mukuro getting the ball in the hoop almost every time, and Makoto almost every one of her own throws. It was a fun way to pass time.

A while later, Makoto sat down on the bleachers to take a break. Mukuro sat down next to her. "Hey Mukuro, if you don't mind, can you tell me a bit about yourself. I would like to know more about you." Mukuro looked at her in surprise. "Sure, if you really want to know." Makoto nodded her head enthusiastically. "Ok, but in return, you have to tell me about yourself to." Makoto agreed to Mukuro's condition. "As you already know, I'm the ultimate soldier. I've always been interested in the military, even from a young age. While the other girls my age were playing with dolls, I was writing military papers. My family didn't understand my interest. They wanted me to be like the other children, but that just wasn't me.

When I was in middle school, I ran away during my family's trip overseas. I joined a mercenary group called Fenrir." Mukuro took of one of the fingerless gloves she was wearing, reviling the tattoo of what was either a dog or a wolf on the back of her hand. "All Fenrir members have this tattoo somewhere on their body. This is mine. Makoto had a hard time wrapping her head around all of that. Being the ultimate soldier is one thing, but being part of a mercenary group was something else entirely. "That sounds dangerous, did you ever get hurt?" Mukuro shook her head, "I was never injured, not even once while with Fenrir. That was one of the reasons I was chosen to attend Hope's Peak."

Makoto nodded her head, "it sounds like you've had an interesting life." Mukuro smiled sadly at that, "may be a little too interesting." Makoto would have asked her what she meant but she changed the subject. "Ok Makoto, it's your turn." The luckster rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Well, my life isn't very interesting. There really isn't much to say. Only that I live with my parents and little sister Komaru. I befriended Sayaka when we were still in grade school and are now more like sisters than friends. My friendship with Sayaka is actually the only really interesting about me, to be honest."

"That's not true."

Makoto was surprised by the sudden fierce statement. "You are an interesting person. From what I can tell so far, you're a deeply optimistic girl who is able to stay in high spirits in the worst of situations. I call also see that you would do anything for a friend who needed you, no matter the danger to yourself. You need to give yourself more credit Makoto."

When the soldier was finished, Makoto was silent with shock. That fact that this girl, who Makoto had just met, had been able to read her so thoroughly was shocking, to say the least. If Ryoko had said that, Makoto wouldn't have been as surprised. She is the ultimate analyst after all. Mukuro is clearly more observant than Makoto had originally given her credit for. Then suddenly Mukuro looked surprised too as if she just realized what had just come out of her mouth. "Well, I mean…" Mukuro looked away. For a moment, Makoto thought she saw the soldier's face get a little pink. "How about we play some more." Mukuro nodded, clearly glad for the subject change.

It was almost an hour before the dinner meeting when the two went their separate ways. But Not before Mukuro gave Makoto a present called Rose in vitro. "I got it at the school store from that capsule machine. I thought you might like it." It definitely put a smile on Makoto's face. Makoto had thanked her before heading back to her room. She then took a quick shower so that she wouldn't be sweaty when eating with everyone else. When it was time to meet with the others, Makoto left her room and headed for the cafeteria.

Author's note:

Makoto and Mukuro bonded as I promised. Though Hiro did his best to take this chapter over as well. But I got him to leave, and bring Mukuro in.

As usual thanks for reading and leave a comment to let me know how you liked it. Feedback is always welcomed.


	9. Dinner meetings and the Programmer

Chapter 9: Dinner meetings and the Programmer

The dinner meeting was about the same as the meeting that morning. The group of 16 were gathered at the long table at the cafeteria's center. Excluding Byakuya and Toko, just as before. They were at the same round table from that morning. Though no one had anything new to add about their shared situation, Makoto could already see that most of the people present were starting to get used to the others. Plesant conversation passed between the group as they ate, each individual trying to get to know the other students in their own way. Leon, who is sitting between Sayaka and Chihiro, is chatting to Sayaka. From the bits of conversation, Makoto was able to pick up over everyone else, it seems that Leon is asking for tips about being a musician. Sayaka smiles encouragingly, though Makoto wasn't quite sure if it was sincere or if she was just pretending. Sometimes Makoto's best friend was too good at acting for her own good.

This time, Makoto is sitting next to Hina and Mukuro. Hina is, as usual, chatting to Sakura, who is sitting across the table from her. The two chatted about what they did in the gym earlier. Hina's bubbly voice seemed to be keeping the tension at bay. Sakura nodded her head at her friend's words. Hiro chatted aimlessly, as though talking to anyone willing to listen. Celeste quietly chatted to Ryoko. Though Makoto couldn't hear what they were saying, she thought she heard 'poker' slip through the noise of the rest of the table. A few times Taka's booming laughter was heard from the head of the table. Most likely laughing at something someone said to him.

Makoto glanced at Mukuro, who is currently eating silently. The luckster wasn't sure what to think about the soldier. When around everyone, she is keeps this blank mask on. It was only when the two of them had been alone that the other girl had shown a part of her true self. Perhaps Mukuro is just shy in large groups. That would make sense. Mukuro glanced her way, a faint smile gracing her face. "Yes?" Oh, she must have seen her looking. "Thanks again for the present, I really appreciate it." Mukuro's full attention was now on the luckster. "You're welcome Makoto. We can hang out again anytime you want." Makoto nodded her head, she could do that. She could see herself being good friends with the soldier.

Hina looked over at Makoto, "Mukuro got you a present?" The luckster nodded her head, "Yeah, she got it from the capsule machine school store." "I used those mono-coins that I've found lying around," Mukuro added in. A thoughtful look crossed Hina's face. "I see, well I also have some of those weird coins. I might check out the store later. They might have something cool. I could get Sakura a present there." Makoto smiled at Hina, that's a nice thought.

When the meeting ended, Makoto and Chihiro found themselves volunteered to clean the dishes. Which isn't that bad. After everyone left, Makoto sat the dishes into the sink to wash. It took a few minutes to find the dish detergent. It was in a cabinet below the sink. The small programmer pulled out a soft looking cream colored dish towel. The smaller girl had agreed to dry and put the dishes away while Makoto washed them. It was silent between them for a while. Chihiro was clearly too shy and nervous to start a conversation, so it was up to Makoto so start it. But what should she say?

"So Chihiro, how are you doing?" Makoto finally asked; her hands submerged in soapy water. Chihiro looked surprised at the sudden communication. But then smiled brightly, "I'm doing fine thank you for asking Makoto. Though I would be better if we could find a way out of here." Makoto nodded in understanding. "I feel the same way." Makoto chatted with Chihiro while they cleaned up. Which didn't take long with the two of them working together. Once they were done, Chihiro said goodbye and was about to leave when Makoto stopped her, "Hey Chihiro, you want to hang out with me until nighttime?" Makoto just had to ask. Chihiro was clearly a sweet girl, and Makoto wanted to get to know her.

But for some reason, the programmer became quite nervous. The smaller girl looked away uncertainly. "I don't know, I wouldn't want to be a bother." Chihiro looked sad as she said that. That won't do, that won't do at all. Makoto pulled on a confident smile, grabbing hold of Chihiro's hands. "It won't be a bother at all. I want to hang out and get to know you better. Though I'll understand if you don't want to." Chihiro's face became cheerful, "Really? Well, thank you, Makoto. I would like to get to know you too." The two left the cafeteria and headed for the dorms.

It didn't take long for Makoto to see Sayaka standing outside her room. The red headed baseball star stood beside her. The two were chatting about music, this time Sayaka clearly looked interested. "Hey Sayaka," Makoto greeted. The two looked her way, both surprised by the sudden appearance. "Hey Makoto, hey Chihiro." Sayaka greeted back. "Sup ladies," Leon greeted playfully. Chihiro gave a quite greeting of her own. "Well, I'll be going now. Let's hang out some more tomorrow, Ok?" The idol nodded her head happily, "Ok, I'll see you tomorrow." Leon then said goodbye to both Makoto and Chihiro then left. Walking down the corridor to his own room.

Once Leon was gone, Sayaka said, "I haven't' seen you since breakfast, how was your day Makoto?" Makoto quickly told her about hanging out with Ryoko, Yasuhiro, and Mukuro. "That's cool, though I mainly spent the day with Leon. He was kind of annoying at first, but he's not that bad once you get to know him." Sayaka smiled sweetly. Makoto recognized the look in Sayaka's eyes. The luckster had seen that look before in middle school. Makoto smiled mischievously, "I think someone already likes Leon." Sayaka gasped grammatically, her hand flying to her mouth. "Of course not, I've just met him." Makoto kept smiling, "You had that same look on your face in middle school when you had a crush on that boy from the grade above us. You think he's cute don't you."

Sayaka sighed, "And here I thought I was supposed to be the esper. Well, he is cute. I can't deny that. He's a dork though, but a cute dork." Sayaka then sighed, "He says he wants to change his talent and be a musician. Apparently, he doesn't like baseball. I don't really get it, but he seems enthusiastic about music, so I promised to help him out. For now anyway." Makoto nodded her head. To think that the baseball star doesn't like baseball was a huge surprise. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight," Sayaka excused herself and entered her own room for the night.

Makoto unlocked her door, inviting Chihiro inside. Once inside, Makoto sat on her bed. Once again Chihiro was getting nervous. It might help if they talked about something the smaller girl was interested in. Well she is the ultimate programmer, so that's a good place to start. "Hey Chihiro, I know you're the ultimate programmer but what you do. What kind of programming you do?" Just like that Chihiro let up, her smile full of excitement as she began explaining out different types of programs and how they work. Makoto couldn't follow what she was saying. There were too many works that the luckster had never heard of, or just didn't know the meaning of. But being able to talk about her interests really seemed to make Chihiro happy, so Makoto just nodded along.

At some point the conversation drifted from programming to their families. Apparently Chihiro is an only child living with her parents. Her mother is also a programmer but is always busy. The shy girl talked a lot about her dad and how he was the one who was always there for her and was the one who encouraged her to follow her dream of being a programmer. The more the programmer spoke, the more Makoto understood her. Sooner than Makoto would have liked, the night time announcement played. It was the same message as the night before. Perhaps it's recorded. Chihiro stood up from where she had been sitting on the bed. "Goodnight Makoto, I'll see you tomorrow," Makoto said goodbye and Chihiro left. The luckster locked the door behind her then changed into her pajamas. Makoto took the hair clip out of her hair and sat it down on her bedside table. Then turned out the light and crawled into bed.

That night Makoto had a strange dream.

 _She was an actual student of Hope's Peak Academy, attending class with the others. Everyone looked happy, chatting and laughing together. Makoto was walking down a hallway, her bag full of presents that she had gotten from people throughout the day. It was her birthday, and all of her classmates, and some of her upper classmen had wished her a happy birthday. "Hey Makoto." Makoto stopped as one of her classmates ran up to her. Makoto was surprised to see her. "I heard it was your birthday so I got something for you. Hold your hands out and close your eyes." Makoto did as she was told, holding her hands out and closing her eyes. She soon felt something drop into her cupped hands. It was a white bunny hair clip, identical to the one already in the other girl's hair, above one of her big tails. "Now we'll match." The other girl then placed the hair clip in Makoto's hair, above one of her own pig tails. "There you go. It looks so cute on you; I should get you a matching bow next. See you later." The girl walked away, heading wherever it is that she goes to. Makoto continued down the hallway on her way to the courtyard to see….._

Makoto woke up the next morning unable to remember much about her dream. Only that the hair clip beside her bed had bed a birthday present. If her dream was accurate. But for some reason it just felt right. Makoto just knew that was how she got the hair accessory. Even though it brought more questions about why she doesn't remember being given the hair clip. She tried her best to bring up the fading dream but it faded from her mind to quickly. The only thing that Makoto was able to recall was a girl with strawberry blonde pigtails. The face was blurry, unrecognizable. Something felt familiar about her, but Makoto was positive that she didn't know anyone with that hair color. Unsure of what it could mean, Makoto got up to get ready for the day.

Author's note:

I hoped you liked the chapter and please leave a review. Feedback is always welcomed. The first motive will be introduced in the next chapter.


	10. The first motive

Chapter 10: The first motive

The next few days passed in about the same manner. Makoto would eat breakfast with the others during the morning meeting. Then hang out with whoever she ran across during the day. Despite being trapped within the school, at this point Makoto couldn't call the situation _horrible_ , though it wasn't the best. With many friendly people to spend her time with, Makoto never quite felt bored.

At one point she had hung out with Sakura and Hina in the gym, they had pulled out a bunch of equipment from a storage closet that Makoto had up until that point hadn't even noticed. It was a sight to see, as the two athletic girls arranged posts around the gym to make what was supposed to be a makeshift track. Makoto couldn't keep up and ended up on the bleachers not long after starting. It was still fun nether less.

Then there was the time the luckster found herself playing cards with Celeste, which was a unique experience or its own. Makoto had spent some time with Taka, they just walked around the first floor, neither of them really sure what they could do. Though Makoto did feel that she got to know him a little better. The hall monitor might be loud and at times redundant, but he was a good person.

Time just seemed to fly by as everyone got to know one another more and more. Makoto could feel the bonds being formed between them. And they were growing stronger each passing day. No one had seen Monokuma a while. The bear seems to be waiting patiently for a first kill that hopefully would never happen. The chances of that becoming a reality also grew slimmer with time. Even Toko seems to have warmed up a little bit with the groups two athletic girls. Apparently, Hina had grown tired of Toko complaining about no one wanting to be around her and had dragged the Writer to the gym to hang out with both her and Sakura. It was clear that Toko, who almost everyone had given up trying to be nice too, had become more comfortable around the large muscular woman. Which seems to have made Sakura happy.

Even Mondo had been worn down and had been seen chatting with Leon and Chihiro from time to time. Makoto had quickly noticed that the small programmer seem to be able to talk easier with the guys, though she didn't understand why that was.

Byakuya was the only one who hadn't so far made an effort to get to know the others. To be honest, Makoto feels that might be for the best. Considering that he did start the whole issue between him and Mondo on the first day, which had lead to Taka getting punched in the face. The moral compass still has a bruise on his face to show for his effort to keep the peace.

It was during the groups' 4th breakfast meeting that the peaceful routine that had started to form was shattered. That the fragile trust forming between them was pushed to its limits. It had started out like any other day trapped in Hope's Peak. Makoto had gotten up after the morning announcement, took a quick shower and headed to the breakfast meeting. As usual, Makoto was the last to arrive. Today she found herself sitting between Celeste and Kiyo. Makoto's hair was back in pigtails, she didn't know how to fix the braid.

With everyone present, Taka stood up like always and began the meeting. "Let us began the 4th official morning meeting. Unless anyone has managed to find anything new, let us proceed with breakfast. No one had anything new to say to so everyone just started eating. At least until they were interrupted that is. Interrupted by the annoying menace himself, Monokuma.

"upupupupupu, I can't believe that it's been almost a week now and not one death. What's with you guys! Too chicken to kill? Or did you just forget?" Those words hung heavily over everyone's heads. Of course, no one would have forgotten about something like that. Even Hiro who had been convinced that this was all some long winded joke seemed to be uneasy with the bear's appearance. Until now it was easy to put the thought of killing at the back of her mind. Monokuma hadn't until now brought back up the method of graduating. Deep down Makoto had hoped that whoever was behind this would have grown bored of waiting and just let them go. But of course, there was no chance of that happening. "Why would anyone go through the trouble of trying to kill when they would have to then go through an investigation right after word. Not to mention the consequences of getting caught."

Everyone turned to look at the gothic gambler, who had spoken up. "It sounds far too troublesome to even consider. It is much easier to just accept our lives here after all." It was clear that a good number of the others didn't quite agree with that last part, but no one disagreed. Monokuma tilted his head to the side, a look of curiosity appearing on his bear face. "Is that so? Well, you're just saying that because you have to reason to kill. That's it! That's what's missing. I just couldn't understand why no one was killing anyone when everything you need is right here. But there was one thing missing, one thing that I hadn't considered. Do you know what that is?"

Kiyo was the one to answer, his purple eyes boring holes into their robotic captor. "I believe you are referring to a motive, this that right." Monokuma laughed in delight. "That right, you guys need a motive, a reason to kill. And I've got one all set up and ready for you."

That didn't sound good, that didn't sound good at all. The way the bear laughed sent chills down the luckster's back. This was the last thing they needed. Things had been going too well up to this point, and now it was going to be ruined.

"The motive I've set up is in the A/V room, please head there once your silly little meeting is over." Monokuma bounced out of sight, vanishing beneath the floorboards. Everyone sat in silence after that, no one knowing what to do. Looking around the room, Makoto could see how tense the atmosphere had gotten in those few minutes. Finally, Taka cleared his voice, "If this 'motive' is what Monokuma is going to use to get us to kill, then I think it would be best to ignore it." Several voices of agreement followed. While Makoto did agree as well, a part of her knew that might not be a good idea. Who knows what Monokuma might do if they ignore his motive. It would seem that Byakuya had considered the same thing for he was the one who spoke next.

"Are you sure that is wise, who knows what that stupid bear will do if we don't see what the motive is. Pretending that this isn't happening won't make the situation go away." Many faces fell as the group knew that they might have to go to the A/V room after all. As if admitting defeat, Taka stood up from the table. "If we must, let us go and get it over with already." The others stood up from the table, half eaten trays left behind as the group of 16 students got ready to leave the cafeteria. It would seem that Monokuma's words had soured everyone's appetite.

It didn't take long for everyone to reach the A/V room. The room was full of large tape players that looked like desks, a deck chair sat at each one. The first thing Makoto noticed was a cardboard box at the front of the room. It was quite disturbing, did Monokuma want them to watch something. Taka walked up the box, opened it up and looked inside. "It's full of tapes, each of them as one of our names on it." Taka pulled out the tape with his name on it. "I believe we are to watch them." Taka then took a seat at one of the take players, placing a pair of headphones on his head. One by one they each took out their own tape and took a seat somewhere in the room.

Makoto made sure to sit next to Sayaka. She at least wanted her best friend to be next to her when she was forced to watch whatever nightmare Monokuma had put on the tape. Sliding on the headphones, Makoto put in the tape, worried about what she was about to see. At first, the screen remained blank, but after a few seconds, it started. Makoto blinked a few times, surprised at what she was seeing. On the screen before her, Makoto saw her family. Her dad, mom, and little sister were sitting on the couch in their living room. They looked so happy, it Made Makoto's chest ache. Oh, how she wished that she could be there with them instead of here. Her mom was wearing her favorite white gown; her father is in the suit he wears to work. And lastly, his little sister Komaru who is wearing her middle school uniform.

A smile appeared on the luckster's face as she watched her family congratulated her for being accepted into Hope's Peak. Not like they hadn't done that before she left. Makoto's family had definitely celebrated when the acceptance letter had arrived in the mail. There was just something about seeing her loved ones in front of her that gave Makoto hope that everything will be alright.

But wasn't this supposed to be a motive to get them to kill? How was showing Makoto her family supposed to make her want to kill? Perhaps it was drawing out the need to see her loved ones. If that was the case, that was a low blow. Makoto was pulled out her thoughts when a high static sound comes from the headphones. Makoto's eyes widened in horror, as the image changed. Her family was gone, nowhere to be seen. The couch that they had just been sitting was now torn to shreds. It looked as though a wild animal had gotten a hold of it. The window behind the couch was shattered and the room was now dark. Fear clogged her throat, choking her as well as squeezing her heart. This can't be real, this can't be real. Her family has to be safe, this can't be happening.

Makoto's head swirled nauseously as her mind tried to rebut itself. This can't be happening, This can't be happening. Denial and terror swarmed inside the luckster's head, her thoughts chasing each other around and around in circles. This can't be real this can't be real. Makoto wanted to believe that the image before her was fake, but a part of her knew it wasn't. The screen went blank and words appeared on the screen.

 **Find the truth after Graduation**

This is happening. Makoto threw the headphones as she screamed. Backing far as possible from the video that had shown her family. Makoto felt her mind shut down as she collapsed into the floor sopping. This can't be real, this can't be happening. The luckster felt a pair of arms circle her shoulders, holding on to her in a supporting hug. It was then that Makoto fully broke down, crying into the other's arms. She couldn't think anymore, she didn't want to think. It was too much, far too much. Her family was so important to her, and to see that they might be in danger made her heart hurt so much that it felt like it would be crushed.

"It's ok Makoto, I'm here for you." Sayaka's strong let wavering voice broke through the luckster's panic, allowing her to calm down a little. Makoto leaned into the idol's arms and closed her eyes. Completely Uncaring as the others watched her cry in the other's arms.

~line~

Author's note:

Sorry about the late post, I went to my niece's birthday party at FunZone. Well anyway, the first motive has been given and it seems to have affected Makoto badly. Things are starting to heat up. Who will kill first and who will be killed first? Thank you for reading and please leave a review to let me know what you that. Feedback is always welcomed.


	11. An idol's comfort

Chapter 11: An idol's comfort

It was sometime later that Makoto realized that she was no longer in the A/V room, but instead, found herself back in the cafeteria. The Luckster is sitting at the long table again, her unfinished breakfast tray from before lying before the teenage girl. Sayaka is sitting beside her as she rubbed circles on the brown haired girl's back. Makoto looked at her unfinished breakfast, knowing that she would never be able to finish it now. The mere thought of eating made Makoto's stomach clench. Her eyes were red and puffy, from earlier. They were still a little watery from how hard she had been crying. Makoto sniffled a few times. She had calmed down but was still a little out of it.

Makoto vaguely remembered how everyone had circled her and Sayaka on the floor while she had broken down into the idol's arms. She couldn't remember how they had responded to her breakdown, but at the moment, Makoto couldn't care less.

The video was still fresh in her mind. The horrible video where her family had been in their home, only to disappear with the house destroyed. The sight of the ripped up sofa, and shattered window was singed into her brain. Makoto would never be able to forget what she had witnessed.

"Do you want to finish your breakfast," Sayaka asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the two since leaving the A/V room. After Makoto had calmed down, Sayaka had guided her friend out of the room, back to the cafeteria. Makoto shook her head no. There was no way her stomach could hold anything down. "I understand, I'm not hungry either." The two sat in silence for a few more minutes until Sayaka once again speaks up, "I know you might not want to talk about it, but please tell me what your video was about. I'll tell you about mine in return." Makoto turned her head to say that she didn't want to, but stopped when she saw the sincere and pleading look on her friend's face. The look in the other girl's blue eyes showing that she both wanted to know and tell her own troubles. There was just no saying no to that face. Sighing, Makoto admitted defeat.

"Ok, I'll tell you. Only because you're by best friend." Sayaka hugged her in turn. "Thank you Makoto, this will be good for both of us. I'll go first if you want. Will that be easier for you?" Makoto nodded her head. Hearing Sayaka talk about her video first might give her the courage she needs to talk about her own.

"Ok, well…you see, I saw my band mates. They were on stage performing, but the next thing I know they were laying on the ground." Sayaka's voice trembled as she spoke. Her confidence waning with the weight of what she must have seen. "I couldn't even tell if they were simply unconscious or…dead." The idol had to stop for a moment to compose herself. "Then I heard that stupid bear's voice saying that the group had fallen apart without me. But how is that even possible. We've only been trapped in this place for about a week. There's no way they would have fallen apart that quickly, that just isn't possible. Plus, it hasn't even been long enough for anyone to start getting worried. I mean, as far as our friends and family know, we're attending Hope's Peak like we should."

Sayaka shook her head, "I sorry for rambling, it just really upset me. And after it was over, the words 'find the answers after graduation.' You know how close I am with the band mates, the thought of them being in danger almost sent me into a panic attack." Sayaka looked down, a sad expression crossing her face. "I probably would have if it wasn't for you Makoto. It was only when I saw you panicking that I was able to push down my own panic and rush to your aid."

Without warning, Sayaka pulled the shorter girl into a tight hug. "If it wasn't for you Makoto, I don't know what would have happened. The thought scares me, more than that video did. But as long as I have you here with me, I know I can handle this; I know that you can handle this. We are BFFs after all." Sayaka pulled back, facing Makoto with a wide smile. Makoto felt her heart swell at those words. Sayaka was right, she can do this. Do matter how bad the motivation video may have been, she would never give up hope that everything will turn out all right. Makoto found herself smiling as well.

"Well, it's your turn. What about your video." Makoto's mood deflated instantly. That's right, she promised to talk about what she saw. But that was alright. Sayaka is her best friend, she can tell her anything. And she had already promised. Taking a deep breath, Makoto steeled her nerves and explained to Sayaka how she had seen her family, only for them to disappear with a ruined home left behind. Sayaka gasped in horror, her eyes bugging out of her head. "Oh Makoto I'm so sorry. I'm sure they're just fine, just like my band members. They have to be ok, there's no way anything could have really happened." Makoto nodded at Sayaka's words, she had to believe that for her own sake.

Now that she had calmed down, Makoto realized that she was still hungry. Pulling her tray of food closer to her, Makoto continued eating. "I guess I'll finish my breakfast too." Sayaka picked up her own tray and sat back down next to Makoto. The two ate in silence.

As time passed, people began to enter the cafeteria. Most of them emptied their trays, while a few finished their breakfast as well. The atmosphere had grown tense; everyone appeared to be on edge. The videos had affected everyone in different ways. But despite how tense things had gotten, it still didn't stop the others from asking Makoto if she was alright. Even Toko had asked if she was ok now, well, before adding "It's not like I really care, I just want to make sure you don't snap and kill someone." Makoto had to stop Sayaka from snapping at the writer for that. Getting angry wouldn't help, and Makoto couldn't really blame her. That was a concern that the group could have. What really matters is that Toko had seemed worried about her, in her own way of course.

Makoto spent the rest of the day with Sayaka in her room. It looked no different than her own room. Bare and empty of everything that had been sent ahead to the school. The two simply chatted about anything that came to mind and about what they would do once they escaped from this prison. "Sayaka," Makoto said from where she sat on Sayaka's bed, "when we get out of here, let's we'll find my family and your band members. I promise." Sayaka smiled, "I know we will Makoto. You know I think of your family as my family too." Sayaka said as she looked away to look at the wall. "Your mom is the only mother figure I've got. In a way, I think of her as my own mom. I can say the same about your dad. I know my dad loves me, but he's never home. He just hasn't been there for me like your dad has Makoto. Is that a mean thing to say?" Sayaka asked sadly. Makoto wasn't quite sure what to say, but she knows that Sayaka would need the truth. "It's not; I know your dad loves you too. He's just busy trying to provide for the two of you. But he could try to be there for you more often. But you know that mom and dad love having you around, they think of you as a third daughter."

Sayaka laughed, "Thank you Makoto, I know I can always count on you." Makoto grinned sheepishly. "You're welcome, how about we try to think more positive and not focus on depressing subjects." Makoto needed to think positive. That was the only way she would keep her spirits up. And in a place like this, that was the only way she was going to be able to keep her sanity. Sayaka nodded her head, "Of course, sorry about bringing down the mood." "That's ok," Makoto reassured her. The two continued to pass the time talking. Soon enough, it was time for the second meeting of the day. Hopefully, this one won't be interrupted like that morning.

The dinner meeting that night was sadly tense and awkward as many gave each other suspicious glances. The fun and uplifting atmosphere from the past few days were nowhere to be found. Everyone ate in silence for the first time since arriving there. The peace that everyone had worked hard to build over the last several days had shattered. It was a sad sight to see, as all of their progress went down the toilet. This time Taka didn't bother asking if anyone had found anything new, at this point, there was nothing new to be found. At least until the second floor was opened up, and no one knew when that would be. Or if that would ever happen. The only one who didn't seem to show much change was Byakuya, but he had always been suspicious of everyone. But it was still clear that he had been unnerved like everyone else, though he hid it pretty well.

Makoto had tried to lift everyone's spirits, but that just got her weird looks from a several people. They mustn't have wanted to hear that from someone what had broken down in front of them just that morning. Though, Makoto swore she say Mukuro give her a warm smile from down the table.

After the breakfast meeting, Makoto was heading back to her room when she stopped Sayaka before they reached their doors. "Hey Sayaka, can I sleep in your room tonight. I would rather not be alone tonight." She really didn't. Even though Makoto had calmed down from the video, she didn't want to be alone that night. "Of course you can, just grab whatever you need and I'll we'll have a sleepover in my room." Makoto smiled at her friend's enthusiasm. "Thank you, Sayaka." Makoto pulled out her room key, unlocking her door as she entered her dorm room. Once inside she quickly grabbed her hair brush, PJs, and pillow then left the room again. Sayaka was still waiting in the hallway for her.

The Idol then unlocked her own door and the two of them entered the room. Makoto sat her pillow down beside Sayaka's. The bed might be a bit small, but they were both small so they should be able to fit just fine. After the two girls took turns showering, they both flopped down onto Sayaka's single bed. Now in their PJs, the two girls had just started doodling on some paper that Sayaka had found when the nighttime announcement played. Once again it was the same as before. Monokuma sitting in some kind of room with monitors behind him while the bear somehow held a martini in one hand. Makoto would never understand the point of it. She knew that the robotic bear wasn't actually drinking the martini, so why have the robot hold it if it was never going to drink it? There was no point in thinking about the ridicules, nonsensical things that bear did. It would only give her a head ache that wasn't needed.

Not long after that, Makoto and Sayaka fell asleep curled up next to each other. Both reassured with the feeling of safety of having the other next to them. The two slept soundly that night, as they spent another night trapped within the walls of Hope's Peak Academy.

~line~

Author's note:

Things intensify as the first murder grows near.

As usual thanks for reading and leave a review to let me know what you thought.


	12. Calm before the storm

Chapter 12: Calm before the storm

Author's note: I know it's not Saturday, but there's a chance that I won't be able to post tomorrow so the chapter's going up today. I hope you enjoy the early chapter and have a safe weekend.

~line~

The next morning Makoto woke up lying half way off the bed, with her legs across Sayaka's back. It was a rather uncomfortable position. It was a wonder that she hadn't fallen off completely. Crawling completely off the bed, Makoto stood up and stretched her arms over her head. Looking at the still sleeping idol, the lucky student noticed that the pink blanket that the two had been sharing when they had first gone to sleep was now nowhere to be found. It must have been kicked off at some point in the night. That wasn't a surprise to Makoto at all. Whenever Sayaka had stayed over at the luckster's house in the past, the blanket always ended up either on the floor or bunched up at the end of the bed by morning. Sayaka gets hot too easily and always kicks the blanket off in her sleep. Well, it's a good thing that Makoto doesn't get cold easy, or she would have woken up freezing.

Sayaka was fast asleep on her stomach like she always sleeps. Letting out a loud yawn, Makoto rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she looked at the clock on the wall. It was a few minutes before the morning announcement played. This was the first morning here that she hadn't been woken up by the announcement. Perhaps it was due to her uncomfortable sleeping position that she had woken up early. Picking her clothes up from the top of Sayaka's dresser, where she had folded and placed them the night before. Stepping into the unlocked bathroom, Makoto quickly changed out of her sleepwear and into the clothes she had worn the day before. They were still clean, it's not like she really did anything to get them dirty.

The luckster heard the morning announcement play from within the bathroom. Just like the nighttime announcement the morning announcement was also the same every morning. Same words said, same ridiculous image of Monokuma holding a martini. She assumed it was, it's not like she was actually in the main room to see the monitor. Makoto walked out of the bathroom just as Sayaka had sat up, yawning even louder than Makoto had when she woke up. "That announcement is so annoying. I hate getting up this early." The idol whined to no one, stretching in an attempt to wake herself up.

"Good morning Sayaka," Makoto said as she closed the bathroom door. Sayaka rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Good morning Makoto." The idol leaned over the side of the bed, picking up the missing pink blanket from beside the bed. Makoto then watched as the blue haired girl got up and fixed her bed. "When did you wake up Makoto," Sayaka asked as she grabbed some fresh clothes from her dresser. "Just a few minutes ago, I just changed out of my PJs." Sayaka nodded her head, then walked into the bathroom to change herself.

Makoto used the time waiting to brush her messy hair. This morning she didn't feel like dealing with pigtails so she just brushed it all into a single ponytail at the nape of her neck, the white bunny hair clip now on the side of her head. Once Sayaka had left the bathroom fully clothed and brushed her own hair, the two friends left Sayaka's room and like every morning, headed to the meeting with the others.

In the kitchen, Makoto and Sayaka fixed themselves a quick breakfast then joined the others at the table. Everyone seemed a bit more upbeat this morning. Which is always a good sign. No one mentioned the videos as chatter about what had been done the day before spread across the table like gossip. This was better, hearing pieces of conversation as Makoto's fellow students chatted happily together while they ate. Celeste was bragging about how she had beaten Hiro at cards about a zillion times in a row. Which was an obvious exaggeration, but it did make the luckster wonder how many times she had won. Hiro sat somewhere not far from the gambler, whining about how he would never get out of debt.

Chihiro chatted to Leon, a smile on her face as she chatted away about programs that could help one practice music. It seemed that Leon really did want to change his talent, and had already roped another person into helping him. Well, at least Chihiro was talking confidently with another person. That was an upside.

"Hey Makoto," the lucky student turned her head to look at the purple haired boy sitting beside her. As usual, the boy's face was stoic, no expression to be found. It was a lot like Mukuro. Perhaps if she were to get to know him more, he might open up more as well. The thought of Kiyo smiling made Makoto's heart flutter for some reason. Perhaps it's because he's a cute boy shrouded in mystery. That must be it.

"Yes Kiyo," Makoto responded, curious about what he would want. He had never been very social, a trait that Makoto had picked up on over the course of the past week spent in this school. "I was just wondering if you were feeling better this morning. You really scared everyone yesterday." That's right; Makoto had broken down after watching the motivation video that Monokuma had made, the one with her family in it. For a moment, Makoto felt her mood drop, but a smile appeared on her face. Kiyo was worried about her, someone that he barely knew. "I'm fine Kiyo, thank you for asking. I'm feeling just fine now. I just needed to calm down."

Kiyo nodded his head, "That's good to hear." He then went back to eating. Makoto took a few bits of her own food then spoke up again. "So Kiyo, what did you do yesterday." The ultimate? looked back the luckster. "Why do you want to know?" Makoto held the boy's gaze, she wasn't backing down. "Because I want to know you," The honest response seemed to have surprised the other, for he then sighed and responded. "If you must know I was searching the school for clues that we may have missed." Makoto nodded her head in understanding. Could there really be something that the group of sixteen hadn't found in almost a week of looking? "That's all I'm going to say," Kiyo once more turned back to eat his food. Makoto went back to eating her own food and continued chatting with Sayaka and the others around her.

After the breakfast meeting had ended, Makoto found herself walking around the first floor. "Hello Makoto." The brown haired girl stopped at the sound of Celeste's voice. The drill haired gambler was standing beside the locked up nurse's office. As always, she was wearing one of her gothic dresses. "Oh, hey Celeste." The gambler smiled kindly, her hands resting under her chin in her usual gesture. "Would you like to join me in a game of cards?" This would be the second time that Celeste had asked her that. The first time the two had played cards in the cafeteria. Though, that time had mostly been just Celeste teaching Makoto the rules of poker and how to play. Makoto had never played the game before. It wasn't like she ever had a reason to.

The ultimate gambler had been more patient than Makoto would have thought. Going over certain rules that Makoto hadn't quite understood the first time. It had been a rather fun time; the luckster wouldn't mind doing it again. "I would love to Celeste; you want to play in the cafeteria again." Celeste's smile widened. "That sounds like a great idea. I already have my deck of cards with me, so let's go."

Makoto followed the gambler back into the cafeteria where they took a seat at a random table. It wasn't the same table they had played at before, but it was near the kitchen. Makoto watched as Celeste set the game up. Since this is what she is skilled at, Makoto had no delusion of winning. She was just here to have fun with a potential good friend. During the first few games, Celeste had to help Makoto with a few rules to the game that she didn't quite recall. It had been a few days. But after that, the games flowed smoothly. And even though Makoto lost every single time, she had a good time.

The two quickly lost track of time as they played game after game. With Celeste never getting tired of winning and Makoto not being bothered by losing. It was when the others started showing up for lunch that the two girls put the cards aside for a moment and ate. After a few sandwiches, the two continued to play poker.

With each passing game, Makoto found herself getting better and better. There even was a few times where she had almost won. Almost, but not quite there. It was during their final game that Celeste decided to switch things up. "How about we make a wager this game." Makoto wasn't sure about that. While Celeste has been friendly up till this point, there was no telling what she might have in mind. "It depends on what the wager is," Makoto responded, not willing to agree until she knew what might be at stake. "Celeste's smile remained the same, "it's nothing extreme. Since this is our first bet, I'll go easy. If I win, you'll have to spend the rest of the day playing dress up with me in my room."

That didn't sound bad, it actually sounded fun. "Ok, that sounds good." Celeste simply smiled in triumph. "So what will I do, if you win?" Makoto had to think about that. What did she want to do if she won? That was a hard question. The luckster racked her brain for a good few minutes, and then finally got an idea. "If I win, you have to play basketball with me in the gym." The smile vanished from the gambler's face. "I see, well then I guess I'll have to make sure to win."

This was it, the final game and they both played to keep. This game lasted longer than the others, going back and forth, as the two played with everything they had. Makoto almost thought she was going to win, and she was so close, but in the end Celeste got the upper hand winning the game at last. Makoto didn't mind of course, either way, she would be hanging out with her friend Celeste. "It seems that I win. Not that I'm surprised of course. But you did very well. I'm surprised how quickly you've picked up on the game. Since you are the ultimate lucky student, a game of luck most come naturally to you. I hope you become good competition for me in the future. I need to be kept on my toes or else my skills will grow rusty." Makoto thanked her for the compliment. Just a few minutes later, Taka walked in. I see the two of you are still playing; well it's about time to start the dinner meeting.

Had it already gotten that late? Wow, they must have been playing for a long time. Celeste put the cards away and the two joined Taka at the long table. Soon everyone began to show up for the meeting a few at a time. Taka was about to begin the meeting but stopped as he looked around the room. "Where's Ryoko, why is she not here?" Looking around the table, Makoto realized that the red haired analyst was in fact not in the cafeteria. She's probably just running late, it's not the first time," Celeste spoke up from beside Makoto.

That was true, Ryoko had been late a couple time for unknown reasons. Taka sighed and sat down, "We'll just begin the meeting." Nods from around the table showed that the others agreed. Makoto ate her food as she kept an eye on the doors, but Ryoko never showed up. After about thirty minutes, Taka stood back up, "This is ridiculous, will someone please go fetch Ryoko." When no one immediately volunteered, Makoto stood up from her chair. "I'll go get her."

"Thank you Makoto," Taka thanked the luckster. As Makoto was about to leave, she heard someone getting up from the table. "I'll go with you Makoto." It was Sayaka. The idol walked over to Makoto. "That's ok, I don't really need help, but I guess you can join me if you really want to," Makoto said as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Of course I do, that's why I said it. Now let's go."

Once outside the cafeteria, the two headed for the dorms. Makoto wondered what could be keeping Ryoko. She may have been about five or ten minutes late, but never this late. A sinking feeling filled Makoto. Could something have happened to the analyst? No that couldn't be, she must have just lost track of time. That's it, she just lost track of time. As Makoto approached Ryoko's room, the first thing she noticed was that the door was opened by a crack. The sight brought a strong feeling of unease. Opening the door all the way, Makoto froze in her tracks. Ryoko Otonashi, the ultimate analyst was lying on the floor in the middle of her room, completely unmoving.

~line~

Author's note: Is Ryoko the first victim or just unconscious. The truth will be reviled in the next chapter. And like always thanks for reading and please leave a like and a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is very much appreciated.


	13. First Kill

Chapter 13: First Kill

Time seemed to grind to a halt. As Makoto stood in the open doorway of Ryoko's room she felt her heart freeze. Ryoko was lying on the floor, completely still. All thought flew out of her head. Without thought, the lucky student ran to the red headed girl's side. This can't be happening, this can't be happening. She has to be ok.

"Makoto, what's wrong." Sayaka had been standing not far behind Makoto and hadn't seen inside the room. Dropping to her knees, Makoto looked over the analyst and then began shaking her shoulders. "Come on Ryoko, wake up. Please wake up. The fear and terror that seized her heart threatened to choke her. Ryoko showed no sign of waking up, her red bangs covering her equally red eyes. A loud gasp from the doorway showed that Sayaka had finally looked inside.

Makoto quickly swerved her head in the idol's direction. Momentarily stopping her frantic shaking Makoto cried out. "Ryoko's hurt, get help quick!" Having heard the urgency in her voice, Sayaka did ask any questions and ran back the way they had just walked. Looking back at her unresponsive friend, Makoto noticed something she hadn't before in her panic. A pair of hand shaped bruises circled Ryoko's throat. The presence of the bruises made it clear that Ryoko had been attacked. Someone had hurt her. Could she be…no, Makoto stopped that train of thought before it could start. Ryoko's fine, just unconscious. She had to be. Makoto once again shook the girl in front of her, begging her to open her eyes and tell her that she'll be alright. But it never happened. The analyst remained deathly still, unresponsive to the cries of the luckster desperately trying to wake her up.

Someone had attacked Ryoko, someone had hurt her friend. The thought put knocks in Makoto's stomach. Why would anyone do this? Makoto had no idea. No, that wasn't right, she did know. The motivation videos. Those stupid videos that Monokuma had shown them. The thought of one them having done this almost made Makoto's brain stop working. Makoto's throat clogged up, making it impossible for her to keep begging the other to wake up, to do something. Anything to let her know that things will be alright. Makoto wished that she knew how to check a person's pulse like they do on TV. When they place two fingers on the person's neck to see if they were alive or not. But of course she didn't, she didn't know how to help her friend. How could she help if she couldn't even tell if Ryoko was alive or not?

Makoto's heart began to speed up, her breathing quickened and the luckster felt herself beginning to hyperventilate. Panic started to slip in, and she wasn't sure if she could fight it off. Just then a loud barrage of voices snapped Makoto out of her panic. Snapping her head towards the door, Makoto saw Taka run into the room, Sayaka just a few steps behind. "Makoto, what's wrong with Ryoko." Taka's loud voice boomed through the air, a hint of fear laced his words. Makoto felt her eyes prickle with tears. This was just too much for her to handle. Why won't the wake-up, why? This wasn't funny, she was to be ok, Ryoko just has to be.

Makoto managed to choke out, "I don't know, she won't wake up." Tears now fell freely down her cheeks, a lump forming in her throat as she cried. Taka opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a familiar sound.

 _ **Ding dong bing bong**_

The monitor in Ryoko's room flickers to live, showing Monokuma. This confused Makoto. It wasn't time for the nighttime announcement, so why was the announcement playing. Whatever that bear wanted it could wait. Ryoko needed their help first. Makoto had tried to believe that Ryoko was alive, that she hadn't been killed. But all of that was dashed when Monokuma spoke. "Ahem, a body has been discovered, after a certain amount of time a class trial will begin." The screen cut out, leaving only a blank screen. Makoto could only stare at the screen in horror. A body? Then that means that Ryoko is…actually…dead? The luckster slowly turned her gaze to Ryoko's…body.

Makoto jumped when he saw Taka crouch down on the other side of Ryoko. She hadn't even seen him walk over. Taka pressed his index and middle finger into Ryoko's neck. Makoto's heart stopped in anticipation. Perhaps the announcement had been wrong, she could still be alive. How would a robotic bear know from just looking at surveillance cameras whether a person is dead or just uncurious? There was still a change, a change that Monokuma could be wrong. That had to be it, any minute now, Taka would tell her that it was all wrong and her friend wasn't actually dead. That didn't happen.

Makoto's hope was shattered when Taka pulled his fingers away shaking his head in defeat. There was no denying, no rejecting the truth. Ryoko Otonashi was dead. Somewhere deep inside a damp broke. Fresh tears fell from Makoto's eyes, but this time they were heart-wrenching sobs. It felt as though they were being pulled from her very soul. Eyes blurry from tiers, Makoto wrapped her arms around the dead girl, pulling her into her arms. Holding onto her as she sobbed into Ryoko's brown jacket.

Taka reached over and tried to pull Ryoko away from her. Makoto held on tight. This wasn't fair, Ryoko didn't deserve to die. The lucky student tried her best to hold onto the girl that she had recently become friends with, but Taka's strength eventfully won out in the end. Taka pulled Ryoko from her arms and laid her back down. Makoto wrapped her know empty arms around herself as she cried over the unfairness of Ryoko's death.

"Makoto." The luckster looked up at the one who had addressed her. Even through her blurry vision, Makoto could see that Kiyo was the one who was now standing before her. When had he entered the room? Rubbing the water from her eyes, Makoto noticed several new faces that hadn't been in the room before. She hadn't noticed them enter during her panic, and grieving. "Listen to me Makoto, you have to calm down. I understand that you're distraught, but this won't help us find her killer." Killer, that's right, there would be a killer. One can't have a murder without a killer. "If you want to be able to find the one who killed your friend then you must be calm and be able to think clearly. If not you'll only get in the way."

Though Kiyo's words had come off as cold, they were exactly what needed to be said. Makoto felt herself beginning to calm down. Standing up, the lucky student nodded her head. Her eyes filled with determination as her breathing steadied. "You're right Kiyo, I'm sorry." Kiyo folded his arms over his chest and looked away. As long as you understand." That's right; Makoto has to keep a level head. She has to know what happened to Ryoko Otonashi. And she wasn't going to be able to do that breaking down. She has to be strong, for Ryoko and for everyone else.

"upupupupupupu, is the drama over already?" Everyone in the room jumped at the sudden appearance of Monokuma. The bear had appeared in the room, not far from Makoto and Ryoko. "What do you want, you stupid bear," Mondo yelled from the doorway. He was standing just inside the doorway. Toko and Celeste can be seen standing behind him in the hallway. "I swear, I thought that little scene would take forever. I mean I could have popped in at any time, but, that was just too good of a show to interrupt."

Makoto narrowed her eyes at the horrible bear. How dare that thing laugh when someone has just died. It's appalling. It would seem that many others felt the same way for Taka, Kiyo, Mondo, and a few others were glaring at the half and half bear as well. But the bear didn't seem to notice as he spun in a circle laughing with his paws held up to his mouth. "I'm so excited. A death has finally accrued. It took you lugnuts log enough." The glee coming off of the bear was sickening. Here it was dancing with glee over Ryoko's death, it was horrendous. It was unforgivable. Makoto already hated the self-proclaimed headmaster, but now that hate was stronger than before.

Mondo, whose face had turned red, cracked his knuckles, a scary look on his face. "What was that you bastard?" The bicker demanded, his voice filled with rage. "How dare you come in here and gloat over one of us being killed. I'll kick your ass along with whoever killed Ryoko."

Taka cleared his throat, "While I don't agree with the use of foul language, I most agree with the main point. Unless you have anything important to say please leave." Monokuma tilted his head to the side in what was supposed to be a cutesy pose. "But I do have something important to say. Actually, I have something important to give that will help you with your investigation. But if you don't want it, I'll just take it and leave…"

"I'll take it." Kiyo had turned to face Monokuma, his hand held out in an impatient way. His sudden response had left no room for anyone to disagree. "If you have anything that can be helpful for the investigation, then hand it over." Icy purple eyes bore into the bear's head. Byakuya, who is standing by the bed, grinned in a condescending way. "That's right, if we are to play this game fairly, then hand over the tip that you are so clearly offering."

A game? How was this a game? Makoto's glare was now on the stuck up heir. He was in this situation with them, and yet he seemed to be enjoying himself, as though the thought of solving Ryoko's death was amusing to him. How low could he go?"

"Well then, who am I to say no to that, Here you go." A small black file with a 1 on it, appeared in the bear's paw. Which was then handed to Kiyo. "I've collected all the information about the case and placed it in that File. I will call it, the Monokuma file. And with that said, good luck investigating." Monokuma then bounced out of sight.

Once the annoying bear was gone, Kiyo opened the file. Makoto looked at the file in the boy's hand and read what was inside

 **The Monokuma File #1**

 **Victim:** Ryoko Otonashi

The time of death was around 6:30 pm

The body was found in the victim's own private room in the dormitory area

The victim was killed in that same room

Cause of death is strangulation/choking

Other than that, there are no other wounds on the body.

Makoto finished reading the Monokuma File; feeling like her chest was being squeezed. This was it, the investigation to discover the truth of Ryoko's death had begun.

~line~

The investigation will begin in the next chapter. If you're wondering why I added in Ryoko just to kill her off at the beginning then don't worry there is a reason for it. That's all I can say without giving spoilers.

Like always thanks for reading and give a like and a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always appreciated.


	14. The investigation

Chapter 14: The investigation

Author's note:

Since this is the investigation, this chapter will be extra long. I was going to split it up into 2 chapters but decided to just make it one big chapter. Anyway, let the investigation begin.

~line~

Byakuya walked over to Makoto and Kiyo, a serious look on his face. "So what does it say?" The affluent prodigy demanded. Kiyo narrowed his eyes at the other boy then turned his head to look at the others in the room. Kiyo spoke loudly so that everyone in the room and those waiting in the hallway would be able to hear. "It would seem that Ryoko was killed in her room about 6:30, just thirty minutes before the breakfast meeting started."

Loud gasps of shock filled the room at that discovery. It was truly shocking to know that Ryoko's death was so fresh, having been dead for just barely an hour. That same feeling could be seen on the other's faces. To think that something so horrible could have happened in the middle of the day with so many people around was hard for Makoto to wrap her head around. It would have been different if this had occurred in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, but to have killed someone with everyone up and about was both terrifying and gutsy.

"And the cause of death is strangulation, which was obvious with the bruises on the body's throat. Plus the file states that there are no other wounds on the body." Once Kiyo finished reading out the file, he closed it and placed it within his jacket pocket. "Now before we split up to investigate, we will need two people to stay behind and keep watch over the crime scene."

That got everyone's attention, many looking around to see who would volunteer. Mondo was the first one to speak up, "Why do we need two people, wouldn't one be fine?" Attention shifted to the biker, who didn't seem to care. Byakuya opened his mouth to retort, but Kiyo cut him off. Earning him a glare from the affluent prodigy. "Think about it Mondo, what do you think would happen if the killer were to be left alone with the crime scene? The individual would be able to get rid of evidence that we would need in the class trial. Don't forget, all of our lives are on the line here."

Mondo looked away, "Ok you've got a point. So, who's going to volunteer?" Then without hesitation, Taka lifted his arm high in the air. He looked like he was waiting to be called on in class. "I volunteer to be one of the two to watch over the crime scene." Kiyo nodded his head in agreement, "and our second volunteer?" Sakura was the one who volunteered next. "I wouldn't be much help with an investigation so I'll keep watch with Taka." Once everyone was happy with the arrangement, the students began leaving the room to investigate the other parts of the first floor. Soon the only ones left were Taka, Sakura, Kiyo, and Makoto.

Makoto was surprised at how calm Kiyo had been up until now. It was almost like he had done this before. The luckster had no idea what she was going to do. This wasn't something an ordinary girl like her normally did. She didn't even know where to begin. But as she watched Kiyo closely examine Ryoko's body, Makoto got an idea. Walking over to where Kiyo was crouched, Makoto asked, "Can I help you investigate?" Kiyo looked up at her, giving her a scrutinizing look then shrugged his shoulders. "As long as you don't get in my way." Nodding her head Makoto walked over the bed, leaving Kiyo alone with the body. Well as alone as he could be with three others in the room.

Sakura was now standing by the doorway, and Taka was by the desk. Crouching down, Makoto didn't know what she was looking for, but she would look nevertheless. Once on all fours, Makoto lifted the blanket to get a good look under the bed. It was dark under the bed and at first she didn't see anything. It wasn't until her eyes adjusted that Makoto noticed something shiny on the other side of the bed. Standing back up Makoto walked around the bed and lifted up the blanket. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of what was underneath the bed. A large knife was on the floor, just a few inches from the bed's edge.

The first thing that caught the brown haired luckster's eye was that the knife was spotless, looking as though it hadn't been used. But why was it here? Could Ryoko have hidden it under her bed as protection, but if that was true then why didn't she use it to protect herself. Was it possible that the analyst hadn't been given a chance to retrieve her weapon? But there was also a chance that the killer could have bought it. It was too early to say.

Sitting up, Makoto called out to Kiyo. "Hey Kiyo, I've found a knife." All eyes went to Makoto, surprise clear on Taka and Sakura's faces. Kiyo got up and quickly walked over to Makoto. The purple haired boy looked down at the knife with a thoughtful gaze. "So that's where the missing kitchen knife went." Wait, what? "There was a missing kitchen knife?" Kiyo nodded his head. "I'm surprised that no one else noticed or mentioned it."

"I was unaware of a missing knife, why didn't you mention it if you knew Kiyo," Taka demanded as he walked over to see the knife for himself. "It didn't seem important at the time and it clearly wasn't used in Ryoko's death." Taka clearly wasn't satisfied with his response but let it go. "But it may be of importance later so don't forget it." Makoto nodded her head, mentally filing away the knife for later.

"Did you find anything new while examining Ryoko's body," Taka asked as he moved the conversation away from the knife. Kiyo shook his head. "It's just as the file said; the only wounds are the bruises on her throat. But I did notice that Ryoko didn't have her room key on her." Makoto was about to stand up but stopped when something else caught her eye. Reaching her arm further under the bed, Makoto grabbed something that felt like silk. Pulling it out, Makoto saw that she had pulled out a red ribbon. A familiar red ribbon.

Knowing that would be a useful clue later, Makoto stuffed in into her pocket. The Luckster then stood up and walked over to Ryoko's bathroom while Kiyo and Taka talked about where the missing room key might be. Makoto tried to turn the handle but the door was locked. She then remembered what Monokuma had said when explaining how the girl's bathrooms had locks on them. The key to unlocking the bathroom was the girl's own room key. That would mean that they would have to find Ryoko's room key in order to get into the bathroom. Looking around the room proved fruitless, the room key was nowhere to be found.

While Makoto had been preoccupied with the room key, Kiyo had crouched down and started examining the floor for clues. She wasn't sure that he would find but Makoto didn't bother him. Having already been focused on her own task.

Makoto had just given up on the room key when Kiyo appeared to have picked something up. Curious as to what he could have found, Makoto walked over and crouched over. Makoto tried to see what he was looking at, but she just couldn't figure it out. From her perspective, it appeared as though Kiyo was just looking at his gloved hand. "What is it?" Makoto asked at last. The quiet boy looked up at her, "it's a strand of black hair."

Now that she knew what she was looking at, Makoto then saw it. A strand of hair being held between Kiyo's thumb and forefinger. It was hard to see, almost blending with Kiyo's dark purple glove. "I've found two types of hair in this room. The most obvious being long red hair that belonged to the victim herself, as well as a few shorter strands of black hair near the body." That was a big clue. After adding it to the list of clues, Makoto didn't find anything else. She had at one point told Kiyo that the bathroom was locked and that they would need to find Ryoko's room key in order to open it. Kiyo didn't seem happy about that but he searched for a few more minutes then turned to Makoto. "There's nothing left here to find, we should go search somewhere else." Even though he had said that, Makoto could see that he kept glancing towards the locked bathroom. Not happy with being unable to investigate the bathroom. They could only hope that there wasn't anything important in there.

After leaving the room Kiyo and Makoto made a quick trip to the garbage room. "We should check to see if anyone had tried to throw away any evidence." Makoto had agreed with Kiyo's statement and followed him into the garbage room. It was the same as it had been before, when Makoto and Sayaka had explored the first floor when they had first woken up here. Kiyo pulled out a key from his pocket, unlocking the gate that separated them from the incinerator. Makoto stared at him in surprise. "Where did you get that key from?" Kiyo didn't answer right away, instead, sliding the open gate out of the way then walking through. "It was during our second day here; Monokuma had appeared in my room and tossed me the key saying that he had volunteered me to be on garbage duty for the first week."

Kiyo looked irritated as he explained how he came to possess the garbage room key. "That bear refused to take the key back and even began rambling on about how trash would pile up if someone didn't throw it out. And by out, I mean in the incinerator." Makoto nodded her head, listening to the other speak as she examined the incinerator. But there was nothing to see as it looked untouched.

"It's the same as I left it last night. There's nothing to see here." Makoto had to agree. "Let's check the kitchen to see if we can find out more about that knife." Heading to the kitchen, they passed several people, most of which did seem to be having any luck finding any clues.

Hina, Toko, and Chihiro were inside the cafeteria. The three of them just seemed to be hanging around, obviously not knowing what to do. Hina and Chihiro greeted the two as they walked by. But Toko ignored them, looking the other way. Makoto paused for a second to ask them what they had found, but they didn't seem to have found anything. Once inside the kitchen, the lucky student followed Kiyo over to where the kitchen knives were handing on the wall. One of which, being the one found in Ryoko's room, was missing from its place.

"I had noticed the knife's disappearance this morning just before the breakfast meeting started. I had hoped that someone else would have noticed its absence, but no luck." Makoto didn't understand why he couldn't have just mentioned it himself. Kiyo had said before to Taka that it hadn't been important at the time but was that the only reason for it. Or was there something else.

Walking back into the other room, Makoto decided to ask the three there if they know anything about the knife. She chose to speak with Hina first. "Hey, Hina." Hina looked her way a friendly smile on her face. "Do you need anything Makoto?" Makoto nodded her head. "Do know anything about the missing kitchen knife?" The other two seemed to have heard, for the next thing Makoto knew, Toko had butted in saying, "Great, now we have to deal with someone armed and ready to stab someone. Grrrr, why is this happening?" The writer was clearly upset over what she heard, as she gripped the sides of her head. The luckster was about to correct her, but Chihiro spoke up first. "That's not good; I hope we find it soon." The small programmer looked freighted.

"There's nothing to worry about, the knife was found under Ryoko's bed." The two looked at her in shock. "Why would she have it, was she planning to kill someone?" Toko demanded with an angry look on her face. "There has to be a good reason for it to be there right Makoto?" Chihiro asked with a hopeful look in her eyes.

"I know why Ryoko had that knife dudes," a new voice was heard near the cafeteria's entrance doors. The four girls, Kiyo was still in the kitchen, turned to see Hiro standing a few feet from the double doors. He must have just come in. "If you know then tell us now," Toko raged at Hiro. The pigtailed writer clearly not playing around. But this just freaked Hiro out, "Why are you so angry, I didn't do anything." Hina, who was pouting over not being able to answer the question Makoto had asked her, finally spoken up. "Just tell us Hiro, why did Ryoko have that knife?"

Yasuhiro calmed down then said, "Last night before the nighttime announcement I came here to get a quick snack to take to my room. When I walked into the kitchen I say Ryoko standing near the knives as she picked one up and put it in her jacket. That freaked me out dude. When she turned her head and saw me, I just knew I was going to die. But before I could make a run for it, she calmed me down saying that the knife was for self-defense. She said she wanted something to protect herself with in case something happened. Though I guess it didn't help much."

Hiro's testimony fits in with what Makoto already knew. Ryoko took the knife last night, which is why it appeared to have vanished this morning then reappeared under the girl's bed after she hid it there. It was sad to know that the effort to obtain a weapon had been useless. Makoto still found it strange that Ryoko would have hidden it under the bed, a place that would be hard to retrieve something from if attacked. It would have made more sense if the knife had been on the bedside table.

"Hey Makoto," Hina began to say, her eyes downcast with sadness. "It's hard to believe that Ryoko's really gone. I had just been with her not long before she…died." That got Makoto's attention. "Hina, can you tell me everything that happened while you were with Ryoko. There might be something important that could help us understand what happened. "Sure. Well, Ryoko was with Sakura and I in the gym. It was almost 6:30 when Ryoko and I headed back towards the dorms. We saw Taka on the way, you know patrolling the halls like he always does. Well, anyway we were right at the entrance to the dorms when I saw something on the ground, just a few inches in. I wasn't sure was it was at first but when I picked it up, I saw that it was Ryoko's room key."

Makoto perked up at the mention of the missing room key. "Do you still have it?" Hina shook her head. "Of course not, I gave it back to its rightful owner. Poor Ryoko didn't even know she dropped her key. The last time I saw her, she had unlocked her door and entered her room. I went to my own room after that, to get ready for dinner." Tears appeared at the edges of Hina's eyes. "If only I had gone in with her, she might still be alive. I should have done something."

Makoto refused to let her friend blame herself for something she had no control over. "It's not your fault, Hina there was no way you could have known." Hina nodded her head, still upset with herself. "Thank you for telling me, your testimony will help out a lot." That cheered Hina up a bit. "Thank you Makoto, I'm happy to be of use." Makoto then said goodbye and was just about to turn to leave when a familiar bell rang out.

 _ **Ding Dong Bing Bong**_

The monitor in the cafeteria flickered to life, showing Monokuma on the screen. Like always the same picture. "Ahem. I'm getting bored, so time's up. Everyone meet up at the red doors at the end of the hall as soon as possible. Being late will not be tolerated.

Makoto couldn't believe her ears, that bear was seriously just going to end their time to investigate just for being bored. They still haven't found Ryoko's missing room key. But no matter how unfair it was, there was no arguing with the self-proclaimed headmaster. Kiyo then walked out of the kitchen, a look of irritation on his face. There was no changing what had been said, so the group of four girls and two boys left the cafeteria together and made their way to the mysterious red doors. Kiyo was the one who opened the doors which revealed a waiting room with an elevator at the other end. Once all of the 15 remaining students arrived, Monokuma appeared.

"The very first class trial will soon begin, I'm so excited I can't _bear_ it. Upupupupupu, I can't wait to see who will be executed." The bear quickly bounced out of sight before anyone could say anything. The gate to the elevator opened and the group of students filled in. This was it; this was where they would fight for their lives to discover who the killer was. This was where they would find out who had betrayed everyone and who had ended Ryoko's life. Clenching her fists, Makoto made a promise to herself as the elevator descended further and further into the earth. She would reveal the killer's identity and bring justice to her dead friend. The elevator slowed its descent then came to a halt. The elevator doors slide open, revealing a large round courtroom.

~line~

Author's note:

The curtain rises and the class trail of Ryoko Otonashi is about to begin. Can you guess who the blackened is? And how it happened? Since this is my first time writing anything like this, I hope that I didn't make it to obvious.

Like always thanks for reading and give a like and a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always welcomed.


	15. The class Trail of Ryoko Otonashi part 1

Chapter 15: The class Trail of Ryoko Otonashi part 1

Author's note: sorry for the late update, I went to my nephew's birthday party yesterday and didn't get a chance to post. Here's the first part of the class trial, I hope you like it.

~line~

The circler walls of the large room that the group stepped out into was colored with bright neon colors. The best way to describe how it looked would be an eyesore and completely inappropriate to the situation that everyone was now facing. The floor is a glossy black and white checkered pattern and large drapes hung on the walls. It was hard to tell if they were covering up windows or were just there for show. Knowing Monokuma, it could go either way.

At the center of the garishly designed room stood a circle of connected podiums. The podiums were made of polished light brown wood, and the only thing in the large trial room that wasn't tacky. A raised platform behind the circle of podiums caught Makoto's eye. On top of the platform sat a plush throne chair, and sitting on it was non-other than Monokuma himself.

The doors to the elevated closed once everyone was out and it could be heard making its way back up. There goes trying to leave that way. "Welcome everyone to the Class Trial. Now everyone please head over to their podium, a nameplate has been placed on each one. So no complaining about not being able to find yours, you all know how to read!" It took everyone a few minutes to find their own assigned podium, a few having to walk around a few times before they found the one with their name. Once everyone was situated Makoto noticed something wrong with the podium directly across from her. Instead of a living person, a portrait connected to a pole stared back at the lucky student. The portrait was a black and white photo of Ryoko Otonashi.

The photo was sad to look at. The sight of the dead analyst made a shiver run down Makoto's spine. But if it had just been that, it wouldn't have been so bad, but no, a large red X covered the face of the dead girl's portrait. A show of mockery that the red-haired girl was no longer with them. Just looking at the crossed out face, made Makoto feel queasy. She knew that when this was over, another face was going to join Ryoko's.

"Now that everyone's ready lets began the class trial. But first I will go over the rules of the class trail." The sound of Monokuma's voice drew Makoto's attention away from Ryoko's portrait. All eyes turned to the half and half bear, who sat on his plush chair a few feet away. "First off, your votes will determine the outcome of this trail. If you guys can figure out the 'who-done-it' then only they, the blackened will receive punishment. But…if you choice wrong, then everyone besides the blackened will be punished and the one who managed to deceive everyone will be allowed to graduate. And they alone will leave this place, scot free. You understand that or do I have to say it again?"

The bear's cheerful way of talking was pushing Makoto's buttons. And it seems she wasn't the only one for Mondo yelled out, "Yea we get it you stupid bear." Monokuma just laughed, "Ok then, if you think you're ready to start then get going…"

"Wait," Kiyo interrupted, his voice stern as it cut off the annoying bear. "Before we begin I would like to know why you found it necessary to have an x'd out portrait of Ryoko at the podium." It wasn't a question; it was clearly a demand for an answer. Makoto would like to know that too. Was Monokuma going to do that for everyone who died?

The Bear tilted its head to the side, "You interrupted me for that? Well, since you asked me a good question, I'll let it go, this time. Well, you see I thought it would be unfair if Ryoko got left out of this trail just because she's died. So I set up a picture of her so that you can all feel whole for a while. Friendship transcends death, does it not?" Makoto didn't like how the bear had described it, but she chose to stay quiet. Though that did seem to satisfy the others.

"Now if the killer would like to go ahead and admit their guilt please hold your hand up." The ridiculous statement came from Taka, who seemed to be serious about what he had just said. Many looked at him in shock, most of which probably wondering why he would say something so absurd. Mondo was the one to voice this, "Don't be stupid man, like anyone in their right mind would do that." Taka deflated at that, obviously wishing that things could have been that simple.

Monokuma laughed, "You may now begin the trail."

Taka rebounded from his earlier fumble, a look of seriousness back on his face. "To begin, let us start with the basics. The victim is Ryoko Otonashi, and she was found strangled in her room. There also appears to be no murder weapon since the killer strangled her with their bare hands." Murmurs of agreement rose up from the circle of classmates. None finding fault with what had just been said.

Hina lowered her eyes in sadness, tears welling up. "To think someone would have killed someone will their bare hands. It's so cruel, how could anyone have done this. They're going to pay for this." The swimmers heartfelt words didn't go unnoticed for many including Makoto herself felt those words motive them, even more, to do their best for their lost friend. Unfortunately not everyone felt the same way. Byakuya leered condescendingly at the swimmer, "That is what this game is about isn't it. To kill and to try to get away with it. Being overly emotional won't help anyone one bit."

Makoto could see Hina grinding her teeth in anger, her hands balled into fists. The luckster understood, she too felt enraged by rich snob's uncaring behavior towards their dead friend. "Though," Byakuya continued to say, "I must admit that the way this went down was barbaric. It was almost as if whoever did it couldn't be bothered to find a suitable weapon to aid them with." Hina opened her mouth to possible snap at him but was cut off by Kiyo. "Can we please stay on subject; we are trying to solve a murder." That brought everyone's attention back to the task at hand.

Celeste smiled in her usual way, "He's right, we should return to the problem on hand. The Monokuma file said that Ryoko died around 6:30, just half an hour before the dinner meeting started. Ryoko was killed in her room in the middle of the day with everyone up and about. Someone had to have seen something. Especially with our limited space to move around." Celeste had brought up the question that was nagging the back of Makoto's mind. How was someone able to kill in the middle of the day without being seen? It just didn't make any sense. The gambler continued to speak, "I know there were others in the dorm at the time, so how is it, that no one heard anything? That is rather suspicious."

Everyone looked at one another, the gambler's question making everyone realize that there could be more to this than they originally thought. "You know that is strange," Mondo stated, a look of confusion on his face. "I was in my room all afternoon, yet I didn't hear anything. My room isn't far from Ryoko's so I don't understand why I wouldn't have heard anything."

"I must agree," Byakuya said begrudgingly, "I also spent the afternoon in my room, and heard no indication that anything out of the ordinary had happened in the dorms." Makoto couldn't believe what she was hearing. How was it possible for someone to be killed without anyone hearing? For no one to have noticed what was happening just a few doors down the hall.

"Wait a minute, are you telling me that none of you have noticed yet." Monokuma's voice halted the discussion, all attention being directed to the bear. "You lot have been here for a week now, and yet not one of you have figured out that your rooms are soundproof?" The looks of surprised faces was all the answer Monokuma needed. Their dorm rooms are soundproof? Is that why no one had heard Ryoko being attacked? The thought sent a chill down her spine, how safe are their rooms really if not a soul can hear you screaming for help within. "You heard me right, soundproof. Someone could be being killed in the room next to yours and you would never know. Heck, you could be standing outside their door and still have no clue what was happening." The two-tone bear explained all of this in a cheerful voice that did not match up with the words being spoken. Monokuma then laughed in the way that just grinded against Makoto's nerves.

"Interesting" Byakuya said; a look of thought on his face. "So those in their rooms at the time of the murder wouldn't have heard anything since the rooms were soundproof. "So the reason that no one heard the struggle was because Ryoko's door was closed, hiding the sound of her attack from everyone else." The heir then turned his gave to Makoto, "Makoto, you were the first one to find the body. Was Ryoko's door closed when you arrived at her door to get her?"

Was the door open? With everyone's gaze on her, Makoto tried to think back through the panic that had seized a hold of her mind upon finding the ultimate analyst. It was all a jumbled mess, fear, terror, horror. The door, had it been open, or was it closed? It was hard to remember such a small detail in all of the confusion. If she was going to be able to answer Byakuya's question then Makoto would have to replay what happened after leaving the cafeteria in her head. She had left with Sayaka in toe, the two of them heading towards the dorms. Makoto had stopped outside the slightly cracked open door…that's it! It finally came back. "The door was open, but just by a crack. Why do you ask?"

The luckster could tell that Byakuya wasn't impressed with how long it had taken her to remember that. "It's simple, the reason the reason that the murder went unnoticed was because Ryoko's door must have been closed and when the killer left, they didn't completely close the door behind them." Makoto nodded along, though she didn't see how that was a big hint.

"Now that we have that established," Celeste spoke up, rejoining the conversation. "How about we move on to establishing alibis? I know that during the time of the murder, I was…" Celeste was cut off midsentence. "There's no point to that, it's obvious who did it." The room grew silent as everyone turned to look at who had spoken. The ultimate writing prodigy glared in Makoto's direction, her eyes hard and full of accusation. Toko held up her arm and pointed at Makoto.

"It had to have been Makoto, she did it."

~Line~

Author's note: oh Toko, if you had just let Celeste finish, you would have known that your accusation doesn't make sense. Like always thank you for reading and leave a like and a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always appreciated.


	16. The class Trail of Ryoko Otonashi part 2

Chapter 16: The Class Trail of Ryoko Otonashi part 2

~line~

Makoto's mind was racing, what in the world was Toko talking about. What could have made her think that she was the killer? The statement had come out of left field, taking everyone by surprise. There was nothing pointing in Makoto's direction, so there was no reasonable explanation for the writer to call Makoto out like that.

All eyes were now, everyone waiting to hear her elaborate on her accusation. With the tight circle of podiums, Makoto could clearly see the expressions on the others faces. Most wore a look of shock, each probably trying to figure out how Toko came to her conclusion. The only exceptions being Kiyo, Byakuya, and Celeste, who each appeared to be not amused one bit by her basely statement. Toko looked around at the faces, her burst of anger becoming aggravation. It was as though she had expected the others to understand what she was getting and agree with her. That clearly wasn't happening. Toko began biting down on her thumbnail, her gaze becoming less certain with the lack of agreement. Finally, she grabbed the sides of her head in frustration, "Oh come on, it's obvious that Makoto's the killer. We all saw how she reacted to that motivational video. Little miss lucky had a panic attack on the floor, you all saw it.

Is it really too hard to put two and two together and realize that Makoto must have become desperate and killed Ryoko to get out of here? Well, it isn't, how am I the only one seeing that. Makoto couldn't believe what she was hearing. Toko thought she did it because of how she reacted to the videos that had seen? It's true that she had overreacted once the video ended, but to think that she would have killed her friend over it was too much. She would never have killed Ryoko, or anyone else at the matter. Makoto would never do that, she knew she wouldn't. And yet, Toko was calling her a murderer without any real evidence. The lucky student felt anger burning in her chest, her hands tightening into fists.

"I don't believe that," Taka exclaimed. "I saw how Makoto reacted to seeing Ryoko's body, the poor girl was devastated. She was shacking Ryoko, pleading for her wake up when I ran into the room. Makoto looked so frightened. She was clearly in denial over the Ryoko's death; I had to pry the body out of her arms after I found no pulse." Makoto's heart wormed over Taka's words, and seemed to squeeze her heart at the same time. To hear how she had reacted while she had been panicking, left her feeling embarrassed, but happy to see the hall monitor speak up for her. Toko scowled, "that was probably just an act to trick us. All that talk about working together was just an act to. Don't retail my argument with mushiness." Taka glared back at the writer, a look of anger appearing on his face.

Makoto felt hurt by the accusation of not just murder, but of faking her heart bread over Ryoko's death. And the way several people had turned their heads to look at her didn't help, even with Taka's insistence of her innocence. Before Makoto could speak up in her own defense, someone else spoke up first. It was Celeste, her poker smile on her face, her hands folded under her chin like always. Though if Makoto looked close enough, she could see a vein throbbing on the gambler's face. "Oh Toko, if you had just let me finish what I had to say, you wouldn't have embarrassed yourself like this. You see, Makoto has an airtight alibi, which is also my alibi." That's right, Celeste had just been about to give her account for her whereabouts when Toko had interrupted her.

"You see, Makoto and I had spent the whole day playing poker in the cafeteria. Everyone had to have seen us at one point during the day. And that is where we were at the time of death. Therefore it's not possible for either of us to have done it."

Taka spoke up next, "That is right, when I entered the cafeteria to get the dinner meeting started to had just finished their last game. The two were still in the same place they had been in earlier in the day. Like I said before, I don't believe Makoto did it. Please stop this accusation at once." Even with the combined testimonies of Celeste and Taka, the writer wasn't ready to back down just yet. "How do we know that she isn't lying. There's no guarantee that the two of them were in the cafeteria the whole time. Little miss lucky and miss gothic could be working together. They probably killed the red head together and returned to the cafeteria before Taka walked in. I bet their accomplices."

Byakuya gave Toko a sharp look, "Accomplices you say, now why would you think that. We don't even know if an accomplice even gets anything out of helping. Especially since the rules state that only the blackened can graduate." The heir turned to face Monokuma, "you there, make yourself useful and explain this to us. Would an accomplice benefit from helping the killer?" The bear tilted its head to the side, "Of course not silly. You said it yourself, only the blackened gets to graduate if they get away with murder. An accomplice would get nothing out of it, they would be executed along with everyone else if the blackened won." A satisfied smirk formed on Byakuya's face. I see, so that means there is no chance of anyone working together sense an accomplice wouldn't benefit from it."

"That's true dude, but since we just now learned this, there's still a change that they could have worked together, not knowing that it wouldn't pay off." Several surprised looks faced Yasuhiro. "Wow, he said something smart for one," Hina said, not even trying to hide her amazement. Toko didn't waste any time to use Hiro's words to help her accusation. "That's right, they didn't know, that means that they still could have worked together."

Seeing Toko so determined to slander her name, made Makoto's anger rise. She didn't do it, and neither did Celeste. It was one thing to point the blame at her, but to accuse Celeste of lying was going too far. She was about to speak her mind, when Monokuma spoke up again. "I can't believe you're still on that! There is no accomplice in this case. Now move on!" The bear then covered his mouth in surprise, "oops, I think I said too much."

"That settles it, there is no accomplice which means that Celeste's account, as well as Taka's can be believed. Both Makoto and Celeste have an airtight alibi. That means for now, it's not possible for them to have done it." Kiyo's words seemed to shoot down whatever Toko had been about to say. Embarrassment flashed across the writer's face, anger flickering in her eyes as she glared at Kiyo, as well as the two dark haired students who shattered her accusation. It would seem that she had nothing else to say. "If you had just listened and dropped the accusation, this whole thing could have been avoided," Taka stated, happy to see Toko stop attacking Makoto.

"If all you're going to do is falsely accuse people without proof, then please keep your mouth shut." Byakuya's icy remark hit home, make Toko hold her head down in shame, the matter finally dropped. Makoto sighed in relief, happy that that whole mess was over, now they can continue. Hina, Sakura, and a few others were now giving Toko angry looks, her relentless accusation of Makoto having rubbed them the wrong way. "I can't believe you Toko, blaming Makoto like that. You should apologize to her, and Celeste. You don't just accuse people out of the blue like that." Hina's strong words make Makoto's anger fade away. "That's right, next time please have actual proof before trying to argue your case. You would not like it if someone had done the same thing to you." Sakura's words gentile, as she spoke to Toko. The writer simply nodded her head and said no more.

"Now that that is settled, we should continue with everyone giving their alibis," Kiyo said, his face showing a slight irritation with the unwelcomed interruption in the flow of the trial. Several nodes of approval followed. "Sayaka, Chihiro, and I were in one of the classrooms. Sayaka was giving me music lessons and I guess Chihiro had nothing better to do." Leon said as he scratched his head. The small programmer nodded her head, speaking for the first time since the trial began. "That's right; we were all together, even when we left for the cafeteria." Sayaka nodded, agreeing with the programmer.

"Well, Hifumi and I were in another classroom dudes. I was predicting his future, didn't look good." Hiro said with a sigh. "You didn't have to tell them that last part." The large fanfic creator exclaimed. No one paid him any mind. "Anyway, I was in the gym with Sakura," Hina stated, ready to give her own alibi. "Ryoko had been with us until she and I went back to the dorms. Not long before she was killed. I saw her enter her room, closing the door behind her before heading to my own room."

Kiyo sharply turned his head to look at the swimmer. "Did you just admit to being the last person to see Ryoko alive?" A surprised look crossed Hina's face, "I guess so but.." Byakuya cut her off, "You do know that just made you the prime suspect. Is there any proof that you went straight to your room, for all we know you could have followed Ryoko in and killed her." Hina covered her mouth in shock, "Of course not. I would never." Byakuya narrowed his eyes, "Unless someone can account for you actually doing as you said you did, you no longer have an alibi."

"I can," Sakura spoke up suddenly, her voice filled with intensity. All eyes turned to the muscular girl. "I left the gym just a few minutes after they did. I saw Ryoko's door close just as I entered the dorms myself. I watched Hina walk into her own room before entering mine." Byakuya didn't seem satisfied with that. "Considering how close you to are, how do we know you aren't lying to protect your friend. Can anyone prove that you left the gym after Hina and Ryoko?"

Taka cleared his throat, "I believe I can. While I was patrolling the halls I saw Ryoko and Hina walk by on their way to the dorms. It wasn't long after that that I saw Sakura walk by in the same direction. I do believe that proves Sakura's truthfulness." Byakuya showed no reaction but agreed. "Yes it does, but now I would like to know where you were during the time of the murder." Taka seemed taken aback by Byakuya's words.

"I was patrolling the halls at the time. Trying to make sure nothing happened, unfortunately, I failed." The heir didn't seem fazed by Taka's clear shame over having failed to prevent the murder. "So you were just walking around when the murder happened. You do realize that isn't an alibi right. You have no way of proofing where you were exactly when Ryoko died. It would seem that our self-proclaimed leader as no way of proving his innocence." Taka's face drained of color, as he tried to find the words he needed. Then Taka spoke, "Actually there is someone who can. I was about to head back to the dorms myself after Sakura when Monokuma popped up and stopped me. He wasted a good amount of my time before leaving. Once he was gone I headed for the cafeteria to get the dinner meeting started. Byakuya turned to face Monokuma, "Well, what do you have to say?" The self-proclaimed headmaster covered his mouth as he laughed. "I never thought that I would be someone's alibi, how exciting."

~line~

Author's note: It would seem that Taka is backing up everyone's alibies, now let's see if he can prove is own. I know it kind of cuts off abruptly, but I had a hard time finding a place to stop.

Thank you for reading and please leave a like and a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always appreciated and welcomed.


	17. The Class Trial of Ryoko Otonashi Part 3

Chapter 17: The Class Trial of Ryoko Otonashi Part 3

The thought of Monokuma providing an alibi made Makoto's skin crawl, but if it could help Taka's case, then she would happily hear the bear out, just this once. Monokuma laughed again. "Are you going to tell us or what?" Byakuya demanded, not happy with Monokuma's dramatic pause for effect. "Of course I am, just give me a minute. Adolescence nowadays are just so impatient. Well anyway, what Ishimaru said is true I did stop on his way to the dorms. I had something important to tell him." That peeked the heir's curiosity. "And what was that exactly?"

"Oh you know, telling Mr. Stick-in-the-mud all about my past music career. It was a very engaging story about how I once used an attack helicopter and an ice cream truck during a performance too," "That's enough," Byakuya wasn't amused. His icy voice and the sight of a vein throbbing on the side of his head was proof of that.

Kiyo was the one who voiced the question that was on everyone's minds. "How exactly was that important? It would seem that Kiyo had been right about you wasting his time." The violet-haired boy said this as stared intensely at the robotic bear. That did sound like a waste of time. To think that poor Taka had been subjected to such a terrible, absurd story. Makoto felt bad for him, she would have just walked away halfway through. But knowing Taka he would have felt obligated to hear out the self-proclaimed headmaster out until the end. "I see," Celeste said with her ever-present fake smile, "so you can also confirm that Taka did in fact head straight to the cafeteria after you left, right?" Monokuma let out a gut-busting laughter, as he clearly found this situation hilarious. "Of course I can, those security cameras aren't just for show you know." Security cameras? That's right, the cameras set up in everywhere would pick that up, but wait, wouldn't that also mean that the cameras would have also picked up…

"If you had seen that, wouldn't you have also seen who the killer is?" Celeste pushed, having spoken Makoto's thoughts. "Of course I did, I saw the whole thing. I couldn't hold a fair class trial if I didn't already know who the 'who-done-it' was, now could I?" Unfortunately, he had a point. But at least Taka was cleared of suspicion. "That makes sense. It seems that Taka now has a solid alibi. So now all that's left are Mukuro and Toko, neither of which has given one yet?" Celeste stared at the two girls, waiting for them to say something. "Like Byakuya and Mondo, I too was in my room at the time of death," Mukuro said, her face a blank surface, similar to Kiyo's but different. Toko's eyes were downcast as she fiddled with her fingers. "I was also in my room." "As was I," was Kiyo's only response. So it would seem that out of the fifteen remaining students, only the five who had been in their own respective rooms at the time didn't have an alibi. Those Five being, Mondo, Byakuya, Mukuro, Toko, and Kiyo.

"Before we continue, there is something that we should discuss." Kiyo was the one who spoke up, his voice leaving no room for argument. "While investigation Ryoko's room, Makoto and I found a kitchen knife under Ryoko's bed. The knife was unused, so it brings up the question of why it was there." A look of shock appeared on the faces of the ones who hadn't already known about the knife. Sakura and Taka already knew about it since they were in the room with both her and Kiyo when the knife was found. And so did Toko, Chihiro, Hina, and Hiro. "For what reason could there have been for a knife to have been present?" Byakuya spoke out loud to himself. "Do you think the killer brought the knife with them?" All eyes turned to Mondo, who was rubbing the back of his head. Seeing that all eyes were on him, the biker elaborated. "I mean, the killer could have taken the knife, but it got knocked out of their hand when trying to kill Ryoko and decided to just choke her instead." Makoto had to admit that was a good theory, but it didn't match up with what she already knew. With what Hiro had told her in the cafeteria.

"No that's wrong," Makoto called out, drawing all attention to herself. Mondo was clearly shocked by her outburst. "What's wrong with what I said, I could have happened." The biker gripped his podium tightly, anger flashing across his scary face. The look he was giving almost made Makoto lose her nerve, but no, she had to get this out. "That's not possible because Ryoko herself took the knife from the kitchen." Anger turned to confusion, as the biker found himself at a loss for words. But Byakuya wasn't, "How exactly do you know that?"

Hina spoke up next, not giving Makoto a change to answer the question. "That's because Hiro told us in the cafeteria. Makoto, Chihiro, Toko, and I were there when he explained to us how he saw Ryoko take the knife." Now Hiro was in the spotlight. "Well then, please tell the rest of us what you saw then, Yasuhiro." Byakuya's gaze was like daggers, as he glared at the ultimate clairvoyant. "I saw her last night dudes," Hiro explained, "I saw her in the kitchen getting a knife. She said she was going to use it for self-defense. She obviously took it to her room for protection." Hearing Hiro's account again still make Makoto wonder why the knife had been under the bed. A place where Ryoko wouldn't have had easy access to it in case of an attack.

"That still doesn't explain why it would have been under the bed, why would someone as smart as Ryoko have gone to the effort to obtain a weapon if she was going to place it somewhere she wouldn't have been able to grab when needed?" A thoughtful look crossed Byakuya's face. "Wait, so if Ryoko took the knife and had placed in her room then what if it had been in a place she could have reached it," Mondo said not giving up on trying to pull his weight in the class trail. "Is it possible that she could have tried to fight back with the knife she had gotten, put the killer knocked it out of her hand and slid under the bed."

"That is possible…" "No, it isn't," Kiyo cut the affluent prodigy off, gaining him a glare if response. Ignoring Byakuya's anger filled gaze, Kiyo continued. "Mondo, what you're implying is that Ryoko had a chance to fight back. But if you had investigated the crime scene then you would have known that there are no signs of a struggle. The only wounds on her body are the bruises from where she had been chocked. So whoever killed Ryoko had taken her by surprise. Perhaps they were already in the room when Ryoko walked in." Already in the room, was that even possible.

"That's not possible, I saw Ryoko unlock the door before walking inside and closing the door behind her. It's not possible for someone to have already been inside." Hina made a strong argument, something about it did seem right. There was something there that Hina had left out. "Is it possible that the killer picked the lock on Ryoko's door and went into the room to wait?" Celeste said which a thought full look, then turned to Monokuma. "Is it possible to pick the locks to the dorm rooms?" Monokuma blinked a few times then yelled out, "Of course not! Those doors are 100% unpickable. There's no chance of someone getting in that way. How would you sleep at night if you're rooms weren't completely safe. I mean, you've got to have some kind of safe place." A safe place? Well that didn't do Ryoko any good considering that she turned up dead in her room.

"But how did the killer get in then? If picking the door isn't possible then the only other option is the person's room key." Hifumi's words sparked Makoto's memory. Ryoko's room key…which is still missing. That's what Hina had left out. "Hina," Makoto said, gaining the swimmer's attention. "Remember when you told me about how you found Ryoko's room key just outside of the dorms, is it possible that someone found and used it to unlock her door?" Hina stared at her in surprise. "I guess, but the room key was on the ground when I found it and gave it back to Ryoko. And I'm certain that she unlocked the door." That was a problem, how did the killer manage to get into the room. "Are you sure the door was actually locked?"

Hina's eyes widened at Byakuya's question. "I mean, from what you said. You saw Ryoko put the key into the door, but did she cheek to see if it was still locked." Understanding, then horror appeared on the swimmer's face. "I see you understand now. It is a possibility that the killer found Ryoko's room key, unlocked the door, then returned the key where they had found it. Once that was done, they returned to Ryoko's room, closed the door and hid in waiting for Ryoko to return." That made sense. But wait, to have been able to do all of that without being noticed the killer would have had to be quick and stealthy. It almost sounded like the killer was a trained…Makoto shook her head, she didn't like where this was headed. Not at all.

"That is a nice theory but is there evidence of the killer having hidden within the room. Because if there isn't, we can't move forward." Celeste's words snapped Makoto out of her thoughts. Proof of the killer having hidden inside the room. "There is," Kiyo turned to look at Makoto. "Remember Makoto, the two different types of hair found in the room." The lucky student remembered right away. "That's right. There were two different types of hair in the room. Long red hair that belonged to Ryoko and a few black stands that might have belonged to the killer." Wait, black stands of hair? There are only three among them that have black hair. That being, Mukuro, Taka, and Celeste; two of which have solid alibis. All the pieces were coming together before her eyes, and Makoto hated what she saw. "That narrows it down, considering there is only one individual with black hair and no alibi. I do believe it's obvious who did it. Don't you all agree." Makoto lowered her gaze, not wanting to believe it. It couldn't be true. Her friend would do that, she wouldn't. Stuffing her hands into her pockets, Makoto felt a string of fabric in one of her jacket pockets. Confused, Makoto pulled it out to see the red ribbon that she found under the bed. This was the true proof of where the killer had hidden and the key to who had killed Ryoko. Taking a good look at Mukuro's clothing, Makoto knew where the ribbon had come from.

Makoto could no longer deny the truth. With a heavy heart, Makoto lifted her eyes to meet Mukuro's. The lucky student could feel tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes, tears that went unnoticed. Makoto had to do this, for Ryoko and everyone else. Pointing straight at the ultimate soldier, Makoto declared. "You're the only one who could have done this, Mukuro. The only one."

~line~

Author's note: The class trial will end in the next chapter. We all know that Kiyo wasn't wasting time in his room while there was investigating to do. He just said that to keep unnecessary attention away to keep the trail flowing. I hoped you liked it and give a like and a review to let me know what you thought. Feedback is welcomed.


	18. A soldier's execution

Chapter 18: A soldier's execution

Author's note: The class trial comes to a close.

Accusing Mukuro of being the killer was one of the hardest things Makoto had ever had to do. To be forced to accept that she couldn't trust all of her new friends, that one of them had been the one to Kill Ryoko. Mukuro's icy blue eyes bore into Makoto's. Her gaze showing no sign that the luckster's words had fazed her at all. Letting out a sigh, Mukuro said, "I thought we were friends Makoto. And yet here you are accusing me of murder. Do you have any real proof that I was in her room." The soldier's eyes narrowed, her hands grasping the sides of her podium. Hands that appeared to be about the same size as the bruises on Ryoko's neck. Makoto was surprised at how defensive Mukuro had become. Though, in all honesty, she should have seen that coming. There was no way that the ultimate soldier would admit to her crimes that easily. Steadying herself, Makoto took a deep breath.

"Strands of black hair were found in Ryoko's room, strands that are about the same length as yours. You are the only one with that color hair that doesn't have an alibi. As the ultimate soldier, it would have been easy to unlock the door, return the key, then hide in wait for Ryoko to return to attack her." In that moment Makoto had never felt so sure of herself. This was the truth, even though she didn't like it. "That's not good enough, Makoto. I have been in her room a few times over the past week. My hair could have ended up in there at any point. I'm asking what proof do you have that I was in her room today, hiding in wait to commit murder.

Byakuya narrowed his eyes at the soldier. "Are you still trying to defend yourself? It's too late for that." "That is correct. It would be better if you would admit defeat with grace." The smile had dropped from Celeste's face as she spoke, her words holding a seriousness she had never before displayed. All eyes were now on Mukuro, all waiting to hear what she had to say. "I will gladly when Makoto can give me proof that I was in fact hiding, and where she thinks I could have hidden." Makoto saw Kiyo look at her with his purple eyes. "Go ahead Makoto, give her our proof."

Makoto nodded her head. This was it. The moment that she shattered Mukuro's last defense. "Before I do, I have to ask you something Mukuro. What happened to the red ribbon that you have been wearing around your neck this whole time?" Surprise filled the soldier's eyes as she reached up to her collar to feel for the ribbon that was no longer there. "Ever since the first day we woke up here, you have had a red ribbon tied around your shirt collar. You were even wearing it this morning during the morning breakfast. But now that I think about it, you were no longer wearing it after we found the body. That is my proof." The soldier's eyes widened, understanding showing on her expressionless face. This was the second time that Makoto had seen real emotion on the other girl's face. This first time being when they had spent time together in the gym, when Mukuro had told her how amazing she thought Makoto was.

It felt like a lifetime ago now. The kind girl from that day, who Makoto had bonded with, was now the girl who Makoto has to call out for murder. Makoto could still remember the gift that the soldier had given her. All the meetings that they had gone to together, all the time they had bonded. It hurt, to think about now. Hurt to know that after this trial that she and Mukuro would never be able to bond together again.

Ribbon still in hand, Makoto held out the piece of fabric for all to see. "Here it is Mukuro, you're proof. I found this underneath Ryoko's bed, the same place that the knife had been found. Don't deny it Mukuro this is yours. You hid underneath Ryoko's bed and killed her when she entered didn't you?" Mukuro opened her mouth but stopped when Kiyo spoke up, "And don't try to say that its Ryoko's because we searched the room thoroughly, and she did not have any ribbons." Had they? Makoto then remembered how they couldn't get into the bathroom due to the door being locked. Could there have been more proof in there? Could that have been why Ryoko's room key was missing? Was there something that Mukuro didn't want them to find? There was no telling, not without the room key to know for sure.

What, if Mukuro had taken the room key, then is there a possibility that she would still have it on her? This was it, the final nail in the coffin. If she has the key on her then there is no talking her way out of this. It will be over. "I want you to show me everything you have in your pockets. When I searched Ryoko's room after her death, I found that her room key had been missing. You have it don't you." Instead of responding, Mukuro just stood there in silence. "You heard her, show us what you've got in your pockets," Mondo demanded, slamming his fist down onto his podium. Byakuya huffed, his arms folded over his chest as he spoke. "Go ahead and get it over with already. If you have more than just your own key then this whole mess will be over with."

Makoto thought that she would refuse and keep defending herself. But Mukuro didn't, instead, she reached into the pockets on her skirt and pulled out two room keys. They were too far for her to read the names on them, but she didn't have to. There, in Mukuro's hand, she held one room key too many. It didn't take a genius to guess who the other one belonged to.

"It seems that I've lost. You're right Makoto I did kill Ryoko." Mukuro's confession made Makoto's heart clench. Even though she already knew, it still didn't make the pain of hearing her friend speak those words easier to bear.

"Why"

Mukuro stared at her, not understanding what Makoto had meant. "Tell me Mukuro, why did you kill Ryoko. We all could have gotten out of here together if we had just worked together. Why did you have to go and start this killing game? Why?" Hot tears were now falling down the luckster's face. Her heart aching with betrayal. Why did Mukuro have to do that? What couldn't she have tried harder to not give in to Monokuma's wishes? It was too much, once again. Fist when she found the analyst's body and now when she had found her killer. It wasn't fair, it just wasn't.

"I did it for my sister." Mukuro's words were calm despite the situation. She had just been found out as the killer and yet she looked as calm as ever. "I would do anything for her, you know. I had to." All thought left Makoto's brain at that. Sister? "Is that who you saw in your motivational video? Your sister?" Makoto thought about her own sister, and how she didn't know if Komaru was alright or not. If it hadn't been for Sayaka being there to calm her down, Makoto could have easily have fallen into desperation herself to ensure her family's safety. But she hadn't, Mukuro did.

"She's my little sister, well younger twin sister. I did it for her. I had to go it for her. I would do anything for my sister. She's all I have left." Makoto understood where she was coming from. Wanting to protect one's family is enough to push anyone over the edge. "That's no excuse." Makoto looked over at Byakuya who was now glaring at Mukuro. "We all saw people we love in those videos, not just you. And yet you don't see us killing our way out. Don't make excuses." Mukuro just nodded her head, "I know."

This was the end, it was now time to go over everything that had happened and put it into order. "This is what happened, from the beginning to the end." All focus shifted back to Makoto as she spoke. "Here it is.

It all began with the motivational video. We were all upset over it, some of us more than others. The killer hadn't shown any outward terror, most likely due to their training. After Ryoko dropped her room key, the killer found it and a plan was formed. A plan to get out of here and to ensure the safety of their loved ones. The killer then unlocked Ryoko's door then returned to where they had found it at the entrance to the dorms. The killer then entered Ryoko's room. Seeing the knife in the room, they took the knife and took it with them under the bed to hide. At this time Ryoko was still in the gym with Hina and Sakura. When it was almost time for the dinner meeting Hina and Ryoko headed back to the dorms. Hina found the room key, unaware that someone else had found it first.

She then gave Ryoko her room key, who had no idea her key had fallen out. Ryoko assumed that the door was still locked from before, not checking to see if someone might have unlocked it with the key she had unknowingly dropped. After appearing to unlock the door, Ryoko went inside. Hine then went to her own room. Once In the room, Ryoko had no idea that the killer was already lying in wait for her. It must have been then when she noticed that the kitchen knife she had taken for self-defense was gone. While she was distracted, the killer slipped out from underneath the bed without realizing that their ribbon had come undone and fell onto the floor in the process. Once out, the killer took Ryoko by surprise, knocking her to the ground and wrapping their hands around Ryoko's throat. Then proceeded to chock her to death.

With Ryoko dead the killer took Ryoko's room key then left the room, mostly closing the door behind them before heading back to their own room. And the one who did all of this, who ended Ryoko's life is none other than the ultimate soldier herself, Mukuro Ikusaba."

Mukuro smiled at Makoto when she finished. "It seems that you figured it all out. You are truly amazing Makoto, just like I said you are." Makoto didn't want to hear that now. "There's one thing I still don't understand. Why did you take Ryoko's room key after you killed her? What reason would you have had for that?" The soldier shook he head. "There was no reason; I don't know why I took it." That couldn't be true, there had to have been a reason. It would seem that Kiyo felt the same way. "You know that's not true. Did you take it to hide what was in the bathroom? It was to keep us from being able to open it and see inside wasn't it?" That got a response. Mukuro hesitated, her behavior seeming to change at the question. "No, that's…" Mukuro didn't get to finish when Monokuma interrupted her. "What's this about a locked bathroom? Are you mad that you didn't get to see inside her bathroom Kiyo? Upupupupu, I didn't know you were like that Kiyo?"

The bear laughed mockingly. Twisting the boy's words around in a way that made him sound like a perv. Kiyo narrowed his eyes at the bear. "You know that's not what I meant. If there was evidence hidden in there then we had every right to see in there." Makoto had to agree with him, something important could have been in the bathroom. "Well too bad, because there wasn't." _Say what now?_ Makoto was shocked. What did he mean that there wasn't? "There was nothing useful in there, that's why I didn't unlock it for you during the investigation." Makoto could see Kiyo clinch his teeth. "Is that so?"

Monokuma ignored Kiyo's agitation. "That's right, nothing important at all. Since you've all come to a conclusion it's now time to vote for the 'who-done-it'. Will you guess right, or will you choose the horribly wrong one?" Makoto would never understand how Monokuma expected them to guess wrong when Mukuro had already confessed. But no amount of thinking will change the fact that it was now voting time. The dreaded moment had come when she would have to vote against Mukuro and condemn her to her execution. The voting screen appeared on her podium. Scrolling through the faces of her classmates, Makoto stopped at Mukuro's face.

"Oh, and in case any of you thought of not voting, I wouldn't recommend it. Not voting will result in extreme punishment. Extreme fatal punishment." Makoto gulped, so it seems that they didn't have a choice. Makoto then clicked on Mukuro's face, selecting her as the killer. Once all the votes were in, a slot machine began to spin. It spun until landing on three pictures of Mukuro's face. Confetti burst own of the machine as the words win flashed above Mukuro's face portraits. "Correct, the killer is in face Mukuro Ikusaba. And I have a very special execution for our ultimate soldier." Monokuma's voice rang in Makoto's ears. There was so much she wanted to say to Mukuro, but it was too late now. The soldier's eyes met Makoto's and she spoke her last words. "I'm sorry for making you cry Makoto." Which that said, Monokuma hit the red button before him with a gavel that had appeared out of nowhere. "It's punishment time!"

Then without warning, a hidden door opened behind Mukuro and a metal collar connected to a chain jumped out of the darkness and clamped itself around her throat. Her hands instinctively grabbed at the medal around her throat, a mere second before she was dragged away through the hidden door along the wall. The wall closed shut as Mukuro vanished from sight. Silence filled the room after Mukuro was dragged away. No one knew what to expect next. Then one of the drapes opened up, revealing a window behind it. Makoto couldn't see anything from the other side of the window. "Ok everyone, gather at the window. The execution will begin in just a minute." Makoto didn't want to move from where she stood. She didn't want to go over to the window. But of course, she knew she had to. Knowing Monokuma he would just threaten them with punishment again if they tried not to watch.

After a moment's hesitation, the remaining fourteen students left their podiums and walked over to the darkened window. Once everyone was gathered, Monokuma declared. "Let's began the show."

Suddenly the lights on the other side of the window came on, temporarily blinding Makoto with its brightness. Makoto's eyes adjusted to the brighter light, and once she could see through the window she saw something that made her heart stop. On the other side was what looked like a scene straight out of an action movie, or a play perhaps. The room that she was now looking into was lined with crumbled buildings. Fake ruble was everywhere you looked, even a cardboard cutout of a car sat among the rubble. Mukuro was nowhere to be seen within the war-torn action scene. Which was odd because this was supposed to be her execution. Then a trap door opened up in the room's center. Mukuro rose up from the trap door on a platform. She was standing up straight, her hands handcuffed behind her back.

Makoto didn't know what to expect. But she knew this was going to be horrible. She couldn't look away, couldn't turn her back on her friend in her final moment. A red dot appeared on Mukuro's forehead, and it was then that Makoto knew what would befall the soldier. The dot moved around her face, moving down from between her eyes to above her heart. Then the sound of a gunshot filled the air. Mukuro's eyes widened in shock, her mouth opening in a silent gasp as she fell forward, collapsing onto the floor beneath. The lights turned back off, plunging the room back into darkness. The curtain closed and Makoto knew that it was over. Mukuro's execution was over. "The show's over kiddies. You may now leave and return to your communal school lives." Monokuma's words were followed by the sound of the elevator descending back down towards them. The elevator doors opened up, revealing their way out of this nightmare trail grounds. Just as Makoto entered the elevator, she realized that Mukuro never actually confirmed that her sister had been in her motivational video. It probably wasn't important.

~line~

Somewhere beneath the school the figure of a man looked up the monitor connected to the wall. The figure stared up at the screen, horror displayed on his face. The figure is locked up in a small dark cell, empty except for a mattress, toilet, and monitor on the wall. He had no idea how long he had been trapped within, forced to watch the sick killing game before him. This wasn't supposed to happen; they were supposed to be safe. The school was supposed to be safe. Yet here he was, sitting in his dark cell. Having just witnessed the execution of the ultimate soldier, who had killed the ultimate analyst. He couldn't believe what he had just seen, it was horrible. Lowering his head, he knew he had failed them.

~line~

Author's note: The class trial has ended and Mukuro has been executed. 14 students remain. Can you guess who the imprisoned man under the school is? Like always leave a like and comment to let me know what you thought. Feedback is always welcomed.


	19. Aftermath

Chapter 19: Aftermath

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait, I've had family problems and haven't had much time to work on this story. Well here is chapter 19, I hope you like it.

~line~

It was well into nighttime when the group returned to the main floor. No one said a word as everyone exited the elevator and walked out through the double red doors. Makoto felt exhausted, both physically and mentally. The class trial had left her drained in a way that she had never felt before. Mukuro's execution, while not as gory as she had feared, will forever haunt her. The soldier had been her friend, a friend who had who had given in to the mastermind's sick motive and killed another friend. They were both gone, Ryoko and Mukuro were both dead. The thought of her friends' demise made Makoto's heart feel like it was being squeezed in her chest. Her eyes still stung from the tears that she had shed during the trial. Out of the corner of Makoto's eye, she saw several faces of concern and pity looking her way. She knew they were just worried about her after having to call Mukuro out as the killer.

The walk back to the dorms was equally as quiet. It would seem that no one wanted to talk after what had just transpired. Makoto was ok with that; she really didn't want to talk to anyone anyway. Once in the dorms, everyone split up and entered their own respective rooms. Well, not quite everyone. Makoto had just reached her door when she realized that she was still holding onto Mukuro's red ribbon. The sight of it made her throat tighten. This simple ribbon might be the only thing of Mukuro to remember her by. Makoto then stuffed it into her pocket and then fished out her room key. But just as she pulled it out, she felt a hand on her shoulder. The luckster jumped, not expecting to be touched. Turning her head, Makoto saw Sayaka standing beside her. The idol looked sad, but it was clear that she was trying to keep her spirits up. "Sorry Makoto, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just wondering if you needed me to stay with you tonight. You don't look like you should be alone right now." Sayaka's words had been said carefully, as if she was worried about saying anything wrong. Makoto felt tears prickling at the corner of her eyes.

This day had drained her both emotionally and physically. In the course of this one day, Makoto had lost two friends, two friends who had died horribly. She can still see them in her mind when she closed her eyes. Ryoko and Mukuro, two young women who had fallen into the masterminds trap. They were gone forever, and that knowledge weighed heavily on the lucky student's heart. She really didn't want to be alone tonight, not after what she had seen. Rubbing away the moister before they can become tears, Makoto pulled her best friend into a tight hug. "Sayaka.." Makoto's voice cracked and she cried again for the millionth time that day. She didn't even think she had any more tears to shed. "Thank you for asking, I really don't want to be by myself right now. Sayaka wrapped her arms around Makoto, her warmth soothing Makoto. Pulling away, Makoto finally unlocked her door and the two walked inside. The room was just as she had left in that morning, which wasn't really a surprise.

"I'm going to a few things from my room and I'll be right back." The blue haired idol said this as she left the room. The sound of the door closing was loud in the quiet room. Standing alone in the room, Makoto felt the full weight of the day's horrors crash down on her. It was too much, crushing her under its weight. Makoto flopped down onto her bed, her mind having come to a crashing halt. She didn't have the will to keep thinking, at least not at the moment. It was all too soon, too fresh in her mind to deal with. And as the luckster laid there on her bed, she knew that the hole in her heart would take a long time to heal, if it ever did. Green eyes closed and Makoto felt herself dose of into an uneasy sleep.

Not long later a shake her shoulder woke Makoto up. She had only dosed off for a few minutes, but her body felt tired as she sat up. Rubbing blurry eyes Makoto saw Sayaka standing above her. "Sorry about waking you up Makoto. I wasn't going to, but you were flopped down on in the middle of the bed. Makoto nodded her head in understanding. "That's ok Sayaka." After placing her pillow down next to Makoto's Sayaka entered Makoto's bathroom with PJ's in hand. All though she didn't feel like it Makoto got up and grabbed a clean pair of 'jamas herself. This was her last clean pair, was going to have to head to the laundry room in the morning to clean her clothes. It didn't take long to change out of her day clothes. While changing Makoto had taken Mukuro's ribbon out of her jacket pocket and put it in her desk drawer, right next to her bunny hairpin. Sayaka soon came out of the bathroom wearing her long pink nightgown, the one that had a pair of matching pink shorts that Makoto knew she was wearing underneath. Makoto's own pajamas consisted of a long black shirt with the words 'happy coffee day' written on the front, and a pair of long pink 'jama pants covered with illustrated pictures of coffee cups. Sayaka was caring her folded clothes in her arms. Walking over to the dresser, the idol sat the clothes down on top for in the morning. The two girls then climbed into the small bed and fell asleep shortly after.

~line~

The next morning, Makoto woke up to the sound of the morning announcement. The same words as every morning were treated as background noise as the idol and lucky student got up from the bed. Makoto grabbed a pair of clean clothes and headed for the bathroom. "I'm going to take a quick shower then we can head down to the morning breakfast." "Ok" Makoto sat her clothes down on the sink and started taking off her PJ's. She had just started getting the water ready when she heard the loud 'ding dong' of her room's doorbell. Sayaka most have answered because the sound of the door opening soon followed. Makoto would have loved to just stand there under the warm water forever, but she knew she couldn't. They had a meeting to go to, and if she took too long they would be really late and she knew how Taka got when someone was late for the breakfast, or dinner meetings. The water spraying out of the shower head drowned out all sound from the main room.

But Makoto did hear the door close and a few seconds later, a knock was heard on the bathroom door. "Hey Makoto, that was Taka. He said he wants us to meet us with everyone at the second-floor staircase. It seems that it has been opened up." Makoto was surprised to hear that. Why would the second floor have opened up? Was it because they survived their first class trial? Thinking about the class trial soured Makoto's mood. All of the memories of the day before flooded back with a vengeance. The warm water betting down onto her body was suddenly not enough to comfort her. With the mood ruined, Makoto turned off the water. "I'll be right out Sayaka." Makoto quickly dried off and got dressed. Exiting the bathroom, Makoto saw that Sayaka was already dressed. The luckster grabbed her hairbrush and gave her hair a quick brush as she opened the desk drawer with the hairpin and ribbon. Makoto stared at the ribbon for a few seconds before picking it up and using it to tie her hair back from her face. The white bunny clip soon followed, being placed into her hair as well."Let's go Makoto, we don't want to keep the other's waiting." The luckster nodded her head and the two left the dorm room.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, Makoto saw that the iron gate keeping them from going up to the second floor had been removed. Everyone was gathered at the bottom of the stairs. Well, not everyone. Byakuya was nowhere to be seen. "As you can see the second floor has opened up!" Taka said in his loud voice. "I discovered it while patrolling the halls before the breakfast meeting." Taka seemed pleased with himself for discovering the newly opened floor. With the second floor now opened up, Makoto knew they would find more clues about their situation. She wanted to believe that they would find a way out, but that would be a long shot.

The sound of a familiar laugh broke Makoto out of her thoughts. Monokuma had suddenly appeared beside Taka, who had almost jumped a foot in the air. "Look at this, you guys have already found the opened up floor. What a surprise! I mean, I had an entire assembly planned out in order to tell you about it. Oh, well, maybe next time." Monokuma's cheerful words hung in the air, bringing down everyone's mood. "As a reward for successfully reviling the blackened, I have opened up the second floor for you guys. You can say that you now have a whole new world to explore. Upupupupupupu, have fun exploring." Monokuma then bounced out of sight. It would seem that Makoto was right about why the second floor opened up.

"Let us go ahead and explore the 2nd floor!" Taka declared, his arms folded across his chest. "What about Byakuya, shouldn't we wait for him?" Celeste asked as she looked at the gathered group for the affluent prodigy. "I knocked on his door this morning, but he never answered," Taka replied, "I will try once more to get him out then we will head upstairs." Everyone seemed to agree with this and the hall monitor headed back into the dorms. "I wonder if anything has happened to him." Celeste's words held a concern in it that didn't feel quite genuine. "Who cares, he's a snob anyway," Hina threw out, huffing as she spoke. "How dare you, there is no way that anything happened to master Byakuya?" Toko said defensively, chewing on one of her fingernails." Did she just call Byakuya master?

No one had time to question her bizarre statement, for just then Taka returned empty-handed. "He still refuses to answer his door." That didn't seem very surprising. Makoto did feel a little worried about their resident prick. But there was nothing they could do about it right now. They can deal with him later. "Let's just go already, I'm not waiting around for that stuck up prick. He can be dead for all I care." Mondo spat out before heading up the stairs. Taka yelled out for him to wait for everyone, but his words fell on deaf ears as the biker continued on onto the second floor. Sighing, the hall monitor followed him upstairs. Makoto and the others followed suit. It was time to see what the second floor of Hope's Peak had in store for them.

~line~

Author's note: I know nothing much happened but I hoped you still liked it all the same. The investigation of the second floor will begin in the next chapter.

Like usual thanks for reading and leave a comment and a kudos to let me know what you thought.

Ps: I'm sorry if the last class trail was too easy. There's a reason for it, I just can't say it right now.


	20. Investigating the second floor

Chapter 20: investigating the second floor

Author's note:

I didn't think I would get this chapter out today but here it is, a long chapter just for you guys. I haven't had as much time to write as I have so I might not be able to stick with my one chapter a week schedule. I might, but I have to see.

~line~

Once the group of thirteen made it up to the second floor, Taka cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. He looked as serious as always, his arms folded in front of him as eyes blazing with an intensity he always seemed to have. All eyes turned to the hall monitor, each one waiting to see what he had to say. Taka had taken charge of the group there the first day trapped in hopes peak. A few, like Byakuya and Mondo, had questioned his self-imposed leadership. But most of them didn't care as long as someone was taking charge. Makoto was one of them. She believed in Taka, and would support him in trying to keep their remaining classmates together and alive. Mondo still seemed aggravated by Taka; the man just doesn't like being told what to do. Considering he's a motorcycle gang leader, that wasn't very surprising. But he at least kept his dislike to his self.

Once Taka was sure he had everyone's undivided attention, he practically yelled out, "Ok everyone, we will split up into groups like we did when exploring the first floor! Since there are thirteen of us gathered, we will break up into three groups of three and one group of four. Does anyone disagree with this plan?" Taka said the last part as he looked Mondo's way. Makoto couldn't blame him. The last him Taka suggested they split up and explore, it had let to Mondo and Byakuya at each other's throats, and ending with Taka himself getting punched in the face by Mondo when trying to stop them.

A few of the students that caught on, turned their gaze to Mondo, waiting to see what the biker had to say. The look on Mondo's face became hesitant, as he realized that people were now looking his way. Sighing, Mondo shook his head, which made his comically large orange pompadour shake as well. "You know what; I don't feel like arguing today. So let's just split up and search this stupid floor already." It wouldn't be an understatement to say that surprised everyone. Taka blinked a few times, and then couched into a clenched fist. "Thank you Mondo, you're cooperation is appreciated." The biker simply grunted. "Whatever."

"So who's everyone going to group up with," Sakura asked. Those words had just left the muscular girl's mouth when Hina started bouncing up and down. "Sakura, Toko, and I will make up group 1!" Hina was just so bubbly as she said that, her bright smile a sharp contrast to Toko's freak-out face. The writer looked like she was about to rip off her braided pigtails as with the way she was pulling on her own hair. "Who said I wanted to group up with you two muscle heads anyway." The swimmer's cheerful domineer didn't drop an inch. Hina walked up to Toko and grabbed hold of one of her hands with both of her tanned ones. "Don't be like that Toko, let's go!" Hina then dragged a protesting Toko behind her towards a pair of double doors, Sakura following just behind. But before they got too far, Taka stopped them. "Wait a minute, there's one more thing I need to say." Hina stopped in her track and looked back at Taka. "When everyone is finished looking around, head back to the cafeteria so we can discuss what we have found out." Hina and Sakura nodded their heads and the three girls continued on to the double doors that lead to who knows what.

Yasuhiro was the next one to speak up, "Leon, Hifumi, do you guys want to team up again. I think we did a good job last time." Makoto could tell by the look on his face that he was going to refuse, but Hifumi beat him to the punch. "Of course we will, with me on your team we will not fail!" The baseball star groaned loudly, but fallowed the other two anyway. As the redhead walked away, he looked back at Sayaka who was looking quite disappointed. The two most have wanted to team up this time. There was always next time. "I can see a pattern already," the gambler said, a sparkle of amusement shining in her red eyes. "Kiyo," Celeste said as she faced the violet-haired boy, "would you like to search the new floor with me?" There was a pause then Celeste continued, a thoughtful look on her face. "Though…we would need a new third member to join our group since our former group member is no longer with us."

That would be Mukuro. "I'll join you," Sayaka said walking over to Celeste. The gambler smiled at the idol. "Why thank you Sayaka. What do you say Kiyo?" The ultimate ? turned his head to the side, his face unreadable. "That's fine with me, let's just go." Makoto watched his best friend walk away with the two other girls. That left Makoto, Taka, Chihiro, and Mondo left at the top of the stairs. Well, that's settled, we are the last group!" Taka declared in the way he always does. Chihiro smiled hopefully, "I hope we can find a way out this time." Mondo shook his head as he looked down at the small girl. "I count on it." His words made Chihiro's smile fall a bit, "Oh." Realizing he had upset Chihiro, Mondo seemed to panic a bit. "I didn't mean it like that, just that we won't know until we look around." The programmer perked up. "That's right, we won't know until we look." All Makoto could think was _'nice save.'_

With that, the four of them walked down the corridor to another set of double doors. Makoto wandered what they would find in there. She already knew it wasn't another classroom, so the possibilities of what could be behind this door were endless. Mondo grabbed hold of the door's handle, opening up the door. The first thing Makoto noticed were large bookcases everywhere. It would seem that they found the school library. And sitting at one of the tabled reading next to a small table lamp was none other than Byakuya Togami. So this is where you've been," Taka yelled out as he marched over to the affluent prodigy.

Byakuya looked up from the book he was reading and narrowed his blue eyes at them. The irritation was coming off of him in waves. He was not happy seeing them there that was for sure. Makoto was surprised to see him here. She had thought that he was held up in his room, refusing to interact with anyone. But, nope, here he was reading in the library. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your breakfast meeting?" Byakuya demanded of them. He was laying it pretty thick that he didn't want them there. Well, he was going to have to get over it, because this wasn't his personal library and they can investigate this room if they want to. "Don't tell me you were looking for me, because if you were it was a waste of effort." A vain began throbbing on Mondo's forehead. That was never a good sign. "You need to get over yourself you prick." The heir's eyes narrowed further at that. "We're investigating this new floor that's opened up. It's got nothing to do with you. In fact, we thought you were still in your room back in the dorms."

Byakuya gave the biker an unimpressed look then turned his focus back to the book he had been reading before they walked in. "I see...if that's all, you can go do your little investigation somewhere else." Even with a week of being trapped in here with him, Makoto still had a hard time believing what a massive prick this guy is. Here they were trying to find a way out, and all he can seem to do is sit there and belittle them for it. With the way he acted, you'd think this situation wasn't bothering him one bit. It was almost as if he was enjoying himself.

"That is unacceptable! We will search wherever we please!" Taka's sudden outburst made everyone even Byakuya jump. "It's one thing to not want to help, but you will not stop us from searching the library just for your selfish reasons." With that said Taka walked away from the stuck up heir and began looking around the bookshelves. Byakuya tsked, "Do what you want; I'm done talking to you planktons." The throbbing vain on the side of Mondo's head looked like it was going to burst. His face had turned red as he began cracking his knuckles. "You stuck up prick, I'm sick of your BS. Get off your high horse and do something useful." Byakuya's sharp eyes snapped up to glare at Mondo. "Like what? Play teamwork and be buddy, buddy with everyone? I don't think so. It seems I'm the only one who truly understands our situation. This is a game and I intend to win it. You commoners are too far beneath me to even consider working with." There was that word again, 'game'. There was no way Makoto could except this as a game, not one were people were actually dying. The fact that he actually sees this as a game was proof enough of how messed up he must truly be.

The tension between the two men became electric. Cold scrutiny collided with boiling rage. Sensing that a fight might break out between the two, Makoto took a step back. There was no way she was getting in the middle between that. If Byakuya provokes Mondo into punching his face in, then he'll have no one to blame but himself. It was just then that Makoto realized that Chihiro was no longer standing by her. Surprised, the luckster looked around, trying to see where the small programmer could have gone. But Makoto didn't have time to really look around when the sound of chair legs scraping across tiled floor filled the library, soon followed by the sound of said chair smacking hard against the floor.

Mondo looked like he had snapped. He had a fist full of Togami's shirt, the heir being lifted off of the group a few inches. "That's it, I'm done with you!" The cocky amusement that had been surrounding the affluent prodigy vanished, replaced with an uneasy concern. Byakuya must have realized the situation he had put himself into and now couldn't find a way out. Makoto didn't know what to do. There was nothing she could do to stop the train wreck happening in front of her. Trying would only get her hurt, and she wasn't going to risk that. Just then Taka seemed to have materialized right next to her. "Stop this fighting this instant!" The hall monitor yelled out, his anger blazing in his eyes. "Two of our friends died yesterday, this is not the time to be fighting amongst each other." Taka was trying his best to take charge of the situation. Though Makoto noticed that he made no move to get closer to the two who he was speaking to. He mustn't want a repeat of what happened last time he intervened. Mondo's inferno of rage seemed to burn down. He began to lower Byakuya, his resolve to beat the heir in crumbling. At least it was until Byakuya sealed his own fate. "You heard him, put me down you brain dead monkey." Makoto didn't even have a chance to think when Mondo's fist made contact with Byakuya's face. A loud crack filled the air, and the next thing Makoto knew, Byakuya was on the ground.

Mondo was breathing heavily, his rage having reached its peak. His large frame was shaking with seething anger. The sight was quite terrifying. Without thinking, Makoto had taken a step behind Taka. Noticing this, Taka gathered his courage and yelled out, "Calm down Mondo, you're scaring Makoto." Mondo snapped around to yell something at Taka, but stopped when he saw how frightened the luckster actually was. That was enough to damper his boiling rage some. Without another word, Mondo left the library, slamming the door behind him as he left.

Once he was gone, Makoto turned back to Byakuya who had just got back up onto his feet. The first thing she noticed was that Byakuya's glasses were broken. The frame was bent and broken, the left lens cracked to the point that there was no way Byakuya could see out of it. There was also a small cut on the bridge of his nose from where his broken glasses most have cut him when Mondo punched him. Makoto knew she should feel a little bad for him, but she didn't. He was the one who brought this upon himself. No one made him insult the guy with anger issues. That was all Byakuya. Remembering Chihiro's absence, Makoto looked away from the scowling Byakuya and turned to Taka who looked to be debating on how he should handle the mess between Byakuya and Mondo. "Hey Taka, do you know where Chihiro went?" Taka blinked a few times then responded. "I saw her leave a few minutes ago. She looked like she was carrying something." Taka explained, his focus now on Makoto. "I was going to ask her what it was she taking out of the library but before I could I saw Mondo getting ready to slug Byakuya."

As Makoto listened to Taka speak, she watched Byakuya pick up the fallen chair and push it back under the table. "It seems that my peace and quiet has been shattered. I'll be returning to my room now." The heir made his way to the door Mondo had just exited out of, but stopped when Taka called out, "Byakuya wait." Byakuya stopped just at the door and slightly turned his head. "What is it now?" Taka was unaffected by his cold tone, his own voice as loud and confident as ever. "Before you go, I would like to inform you that while looking around I found a letter buried under a layer of dust. Taka held up a large gold-colored envelope. "It has the Hope's Peak seal on the back and even has the words 'Hope's Peak Academy written on it." That seemed to have gotten Byakuya's interest. "I see, are you going to open it up and let me see what's inside?" Taka shook his head at the blonde heir's demand. "I will open it up and show it to everyone after we have finished investigating the second floor. We will be gathering in the cafeteria like before. If you want to see what is inside the letter, you will have to join us and find out with everyone else."

Byakuya made a tsk sound then left the library, leaving Makoto and Taka the last ones left in there. Walking over to a desk not far from where Byakuya had been sitting, the luckster noticed a rectangularly shaped spot in the dust on the desk's surface. It looked as though something had been there recently, could it be what Chihiro had taken. There was nothing else to see there so Makoto started walking around the library, trying to see if she could find anything herself. Taka joined her, his presence welcoming in the large quiet room. At the back of the library, Makoto almost walked past a door that was hidden away next to some bookshelves. If she hadn't been looking closely at everything, she would have walked right past it. Walking over to the door, Makoto opened the door and switched on the light. Beyond the door was a small archive. Every space on the shelves that made up the room's walls was packed to the brim with files and documents. There were even some files on the floor where there was no more room for them on the shelves.

Makoto wanted to pick up one of the files and look through them, but she could do that another time, for now all that mattered was that she knew that the archive was here in the library. "This looks interesting, how about we search through here together later on." It was as if Taka had read Makoto's mind. The lucky student nodded her head, "Let's do that." With nothing else to see, Makoto and Taka left the archive. Back in the library, Makoto made her way towards the doors that led to the hallway. "I'm going to check on Hina, Sakura, and Toko." Taka nodded his head, "that's fine; our group seems to have disbanded anyway. I'm going to check on the others too, and then I will head to the cafeteria to wait on everyone." Makoto nodded her head then walked back into the corridor.

She then headed down the corridor to where she remembered Hina heading to. The lucky student found herself in front of another large pair of double doors. Turning the handle, Makoto walked into a large room with workout equipment organized onto shelves along the walls. Hina, Toko, and Sakura were standing in the middle of the room, seeming to be in the middle of a conversation. Hina was the first one to notice Makoto. The swimmer smiled in her direction and waved at her. "Hey Makoto, you won't believe it!" Hina's voice was filled with an excitement that had her more bubbly than usual. Toko and Sakura looked at Makoto then. The muscular woman gave the luckster a warm smile, while the nerves pigtailed girl just looked away biting one of her nails. "We have a pool Makoto, can you believe it a pool. I'm so excited; I can't wait to swim in it." Makoto could believe it, she was bouncing with so much excitement that Makoto wouldn't be surprised if she just took off running for the pool that very moment. "The pool entrance is through the changing room over there." Hina pointed to two doors on the other side of the room. One was blue, which Makoto assumed was the boy's changing room, and a pink door, which was most likely the girl's changing room.

Makoto then noticed a large machine gun nailed to ceiling pointing at the doors. The sight of it made Makoto nerves. What purpose could that thing serve? As if noticing Makoto's unease, Sakura spoke up, "It's alright. Monokuma showed up early and explained it. The machine gun is to ensure that one enters the wrong changing room. It would seem that the changing rooms have card readers and the only way in is to swipe our e-handbooks across the card reader. But only a girl's handbook and open the girl's locker room and only a boy's handbook can open the boy's locker room. If anyone tries to enter the wrong changing room, they will be shot down. Monokuma said something about not allowing indecency in the school. Which is something I don't understand when he makes us kill each other."

Makoto nodded along while listening. So she would only be able to enter the girl's locker room and the machine gun was to keep people from spying on each other. It kind of made sense in a twisted sorta way. "We also found a bunch of floats and pool supplies in the pool supply closet. We should have a pool party, it would be fun. What do you think Makoto?" That did sound fun. Makoto told Hina that and the swimmer's smile got even bigger. "Come on Makoto, I'll show you the pool." Hina then swiped her handbook across the card reader then opened the door to the girl's locker room. The inside of the changing room looked more like a gym. Work out equipment everywhere. There was a set of dumbbells and other things that Sakura would enjoy. There was a second door in the changing room; this one must be the one that leads to the actual pool. The luckster fallowed Hina through the door and into the pool room. The pool was huge, the kind of pool one would see professional swimmers use. Considering that this is Hope's peak, a large pool should be expected. There was also a set of bleachers where people could watch other's swim. Most likely for swimming contests. Hina walked over to the supply closet and opened it up. Inside were all kinds of cleaners for the water, nets of all sizes and boxes filled with all sorts of floats that anyone would want to play with while swimming.

"Hey Makoto, do you want to swim with me sometime. Swimming is a great way for people to bond you know?" That was a great offer, one that Makoto wasn't going to pass up. "Sure, I would love to swim with you sometime." That was what Hina wanted to hear. "Thanks, Makoto, we'll have a blast. Well, let's go head to the cafeteria already." The two girls then left the pool, walking back through the changing room and into the pool entrance. Sakura and Toko where still there, Toko having an impatient look on her face. "Can we go now, there's nothing left see here." Just then Makoto felt her stomach growl. That's right, they hadn't eaten breakfast yet. The others must be getting hungry too. "Of course we can, let's head to the cafeteria. I'm ready to eat some breakfast and I'm sure the rest of you are too." Sakura said as she made her way to the room's entrance. Makoto, Hina, and Toko followed her out and the four girls made their way back downstairs.

~line~

Author's note:

I hope you like this chapter. Since Celeste wasn't at the pool entrance to mention how they could trade handbooks to get into the changing rooms, it's not yet a rule that they can't lend out there e-handbooks. plus it seems that Byakuya got punched by Mondo, maybe he'll be more careful when agitating the dude. But knowing Byakuya he might not.

Anyway, thank you for reading and give a kudos and a comment to let me know what you thought.


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